Reflections on the Future of Quebec Universities

It’s May 1st and student strikes are still in full swing in Montreal, eleven weeks after students began walking out of classes.  That makes the current strike the longest in Quebec history.  It’s hard to say where it will go, but with international media and other outlets catching on and surprisingly showing support, there can be no doubt that students have earned a place in Canadian history, a perception to be determined in large part by the outcome.

My take on the strike is as follows.  I am not a student these days and I haven’t identified myself strongly with the cause; primarily because I have trouble identifying with social movements wholeheartedly, the thinker in me resisting the consequences of practice.  And there are particular things that have discouraged me from this movement.  There is a certain fashion to wearing the carré rouge that is presently undeniable; and I don’t like identifying with bratty teenagers wearing the red square, even if that means also identifying with students who have a legitimate cause and more than enough proof to manifest against current university conditions.

The truth is, the kicker for me in the debate isn’t really the increased financial burden being placed on students, but rather what Quebec universities wish to do with the money (75% tuition hike in five years), and what that means in general for the future of these establishments.  It’s well known that established ‘public’ universities are bedding more and more frequently with the private sectior, and therein lies the trouble.  By all glimpses at the government’s 2011-2012 education budget plan, ‘A Fair and Balanced University Funding Plan, To Give Quebec the Means to Fulfill its Ambitions’, Quebec universities and the provincial government are aiming to increase the privatization of education and place the burden for this on students rather than private investors.  This movement on behalf of Quebec is in line with others across North America, where universities have essentially turned or been forced to turn public spaces of learning into marketable, profitable enterprises expected to aid in a society’s general economic development.  Corporate entities, perceiving the assets and capabilities of the university for themselves and perhaps society, continue to ink out complicated research contract with university affiliates and this is perceived as a good thing from the perspective of the university as well, since it ensures economic growth and perhaps jobs for some. 

That being said, we can see this market-based philosophy making its way into the Quebec government’s university budget: in their creation of their ‘fonds pour l’excellence et la performance universitaires,’ for instance, an incentive cash pool that will reward universities who generate the largest donations and legacies from businesses and individuals.  These donations will go towards corporate sponsored research, that has not only taken on a substantially larger role in recent years in universities, but has likewise been distributed entirely unevenly.  Out of university research contracts awarded in 2005-2006, hard sciences (health science, applied science) took in over 75% of grants, while social sciences and the humanities only 7.8%.  Looking at those numbers alone should trouble all humanities students and get them thinking about their institutional place in the future.

Finally, we can see the university moving towards its transformation as economic-business machine by looking at faculty payroll in recent years.  Quebec payrolls dolled out to ‘administrative staff’ in the last ten years have increased by 2%, while those given to professors actually dropped by 4.4%.  This is in keeping with the idea that today, according to the Quebec government, what is really needed is not great professors but great managers and administrators, the purpose of whom it is to sell and manage the university in terms of future investments.  Between 1997 and 2004 alone, payroll expenditures going to administrative personal rose over 80% (40% at UQAM, for example, to ‘top-tier executives’). 

Anyway, by now you should get the picture and agree or disagree with this model and where the government seems to be pushing Quebec universities.  As a former humanities student, it is hard for me to swallow some of these numbers, because it means demoting my field and speculating on its increasing irrelevance.  As well, I find myself not inspired by university-corporate partnerships, even if they produce more efficient technological or other advances.  One should always remember that these corporations are getting something out of the deal, specifically a lot of money, and that in this case it will have belonged to the students.

For more information on this subject, I encourage readers to check out links such as this one, sent my way by a former professor of mine, or this one, which successfully argues against the tuition increase and is the source of my statistics throughout this post.  You can also look into the Quebec government’s 2010-11 education budget, which you can easily google and analyze yourself.