By Lucy-Claire Saunders

What's in a name? Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Does a university without adequate funding provide a better education than a college with the same financial burdens?

 

After years of pushing for university status, Fraser Valley, Kwantlen and Malaspina university colleges have finally received a promise from the Ministry of Advanced Education that their institutions will be able to drop college from their title pending legislative conferment.

 

The change will provide the schools with a clear recognition of what they are both nationally and international becoming much more appealing for foreign students.

 

“These renamed institutions will be able to attract more international students because people abroad don't necessarily understand what a university-college is,” said Robert Clift, executive director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC.

 

But the joyous news to those who have worked so hard to see their institutions exalted to university status rings hollow against the backdrop of budget cuts that threaten jobs, student enrollment and threatens to reduce everything to dirty politics.

 

“One of the troubling things about this announcement is that the schools don't have the money to improve the quality of their programs. Are they really going to establish the good name they need?” Clift asked. “Certainly the surrounding communities are large enough where they deserve to have universities but part of this is politics. In a little over 12 months we'll be going to an election in B.C. and the government wants to be able to go got those communities and say, 'you wanted a university and so we gave you a university.'”

 

As news about the three colleges' new university status circulated the Lower Mainland last week, there was a lot of confusion about how the Ministry of Advanced Education could dole out the university title on one hand but take away money with other.

 

“To fulfill their new mandates as universities will require more money,” said Cindy Oliver, president of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators. “Yet the province has already cut 2.6 per cent from their operating grants and has made no commitment to either restore that funding or increase support for these or any other post-secondary institutions,”

 

Because universities and colleges are receiving less money than they were promised, there are fears that the institutions will offer less student placements and cut faculty employment. “Even though the total spending for post-secondary education is up by four per cent over last year, the actual amount of money that public institutions will receive per student has dropped by more than three per sent,” he said in a press release.

 

At the Vancouver Community College, 12 instructors are being laid off and an estimated 393 full time domestic student placements are being axed. Simon Fraser University president Michael Stevenson said advanced education is at a tipping point in  B.C. and SFU board members will have to start thinking about cutting jobs in the future if something doesn't change.

 

“We are very worried about the future as we continue to have problems in regard to covering inflationary costs because the government formula doesn't deal with those issues,” he said. “We're now at a point where we'll almost certainly have to reduce our employee strength.”
But the Minister of Advanced Education claims that the budget is not being cut-- it's just begin re-directed to specific programs such as nursing, trades, graduate studies and education for aboriginal students.

 

"Firstly, let’s clarify the facts,” Murray Coell wrote in an e-mail. “All public post secondary institutions in B.C. are receiving increases to their budgets this year. A total of $68 million has been added to the operating budgets for post secondary institutions for 2008/09.

 

“That means that every institution has received an increase, including Kwantlen (now KPU) and UCFV (now UFV). At the same time, we’re targeting some of that increased funding to areas where growth is vitally needed.

 

“There will be some challenges for the institutions, but these are decisions that I believe British Columbia as a whole needs to make, and we need to make them now.” He also added that the decision to change the colleges into universities was based on the Campus 2020 recommendations made by B.C. attorney general Geoff Plant in 2007 when he reviewed the province’s postsecondary-education system.

 

Until all the school budgets are in, it's still guess work as to how funding woes will affect the new universities. “This is a mix of good news and bad news,” said Nathan Griffiths, spokesperson for Kwantlen Student Union. “The students are really positive about having a full university because it puts more value to their degrees and it gives the school a better reputation-- the one it deserves.
 
“But it would have been great is there was budgetary finding that came along with this. That's really the sad thing. It costs money to make this happen.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Money certainly would help these newly blessed universities expand and develop the programs they need to support their new name, said Clift.

 

“We currently have six public universities which are underfunded. We're adding three more. So now we have nine under-funded universities.”