HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s universities are getting one-year conditional funding agreements as part of an abrupt government policy change that caught school presidents off guard.
The terms announced Friday by Advanced Education Minister Brian Wong are a departure from the four-year funding deals traditionally offered to universities.
Wong said the province needs more student housing and more graduates in sectors like health care. The new conditions, he added, will help make universities "accountable to government needs."
“We strongly feel that with workforce demands, with population growth, with housing … that we need to ensure that universities are in alignment with us," Wong told reporters.
Talks had been ongoing with Nova Scotia’s 10 universities on a new funding agreement when the government informed them of the change earlier this week, Wong said.
The change didn’t go over well with the Council of Nova Scotia University Presidents, which declined to be interviewed but issued a news release Friday calling Wong's announcement “extraordinarily distressing.”
Council chair David Dingwall, who is also president of Cape Breton University, said there was no consultation on a new government funding proposal that as presented “creates unnecessary financial hardship for many universities.”
Dingwall said the provincial policy change coupled with the federal government’s announced cap on new international student visa permits would cost schools millions of dollars in lost revenue.
“Both levels of government have created an elevated level of uncertainty across Nova Scotia’s university sector,” he said.
Under the new agreements, the overall operating grant for nine small and mid-sized universities is to rise by $3.6 million in the province's 2024-25 fiscal year, to $383.2 million. Government funding for Dalhousie University, which already receives the biggest share of the overall grant, will remain at its 2023-24 level — around $203.6 million.
Dalhousie also faces a 10-per-cent grant holdback if it doesn’t fill at least 97 per cent of the seats in its health training programs, while other schools will face a three per cent holdback if they don't hit the same percentage for their health programs.
Dalhousie and Cape Breton University also face a 10-per-cent funding holdback until each school provides plans to house at least 15 per cent of their full-time students. The Halifax school needs to add at least 200 housing beds to meet that target, while CBU needs an additional 300.
Meanwhile, the cap on tuition increases for Nova Scotian students in undergraduate programs has been reduced from three per cent to two per cent; schools must increase tuition for international students a minimum of nine per cent. Both Dalhousie and the University of King’s College are exempt from the minimum increase for international students because they boosted their tuition rates last year.
Wong said the minimum rate for international tuition would better align with the cost of providing foreign students with an education given that their families aren’t taxpayers in Nova Scotia.
“It (the minimum) keeps us lower than a lot of the other provinces are offering,” said Wong. “We are kind of in the mid-range of what other universities across Canada are charging for tuition.”
Georgia Saleski, executive director of Students Nova Scotia, said she was happy to see a lower tuition cap for domestic students who pay the highest tuition in the country, at 36 per cent above the national average, but she said it appears international students are being forced to make up funding shortfalls.
“It’s going to put additional stress on a group that is already facing lots of affordability and discriminatory issues from housing to food insecurity,” Saleski said.
Wong said he plans to negotiate agreements with each university, although he was clear there wouldn’t be changes to the conditions.
“This is the agreement moving forward,” the minister said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2024.
Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press
