Manitoba scraps controversial university funding model

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This article was published 05/05/2023 (1128 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon University’s president is relieved after hearing the Manitoba government has abandoned its controversial plans to adopt a performance-based funding model for post-secondary institutions.

David Docherty is among those within the education community who have opposed the province’s interest in the model, noting it would threaten the well-being of his school.

“I applaud them for listening,” Docherty told the Sun on Thursday.

Late last month, Advanced Education and Training Minister Sarah Guillemard sent a letter to various university stakeholders, confirming that post-secondary funding will not be tied to performance-based metrics such as graduation rates and graduate earnings.

The Progressive Conservatives’ drive to rework post-secondary funding came after Manitoba’s auditor general published a report on post-secondary oversight in October 2020.

The report concluded that government oversight of post-secondary schools was severely lacking and offered 22 recommendations to fix the problem, with the use of “results-based performance metrics” being one of them.

Almost immediately, this proposed measure garnered criticism from members of the education community in Westman and across Manitoba.

Bruce Strang, then president of the Brandon University Faculty Association, had told the Sun that such a system would create “perverse incentives” among professors and university staff to pass failing students just to artificially inflate their numbers.

“Is it not, frankly, idiotic to set up a system that would reward professors and reward universities for passing students who don’t actually do the work?” Strang said in the fall of 2020.

Despite objections from educators, the province moved forward with public consultations on its new “post-secondary accountability framework,” a process that ramped up last year.

While BU was invited to participate in the consultation process, Docherty wasn’t pleased with what he saw and sent a letter to the deputy minister of advanced education last fall, outlining his concerns.

Like Strang, Docherty saw graduation rates as a poor metric for measuring a post-secondary school’s worth, since regional institutions like BU often serve as a steppingstone to larger schools that then receive full credit when a student finally obtains their degree.

“So, it really would have a negative impact on regional universities such ourselves and even University College of the North, where people start because they want to be in a smaller community and eventually they go on elsewhere,” the BU president said Thursday.

Docherty also took issue with the province’s proposal to measure performance based on graduate earnings, since this system penalizes certain professions that may be more important to regions like Westman despite paying less.

“People in the social service industries may not make as much as some other professionals do, but we need these people for a healthy economy and a healthy society,” he said.

However, Docherty noted he isn’t against the idea of performance-based funding outright and believes the province should use different metrics.

For example, the BU president said his school’s community outreach programming should be given greater weight, such as the school’s hosting of varsity athletic competitions and events like the Western Manitoba Science Fair.

“Come out, spend a few days here, see everything we do and then we can have a conversation about what we want to measure,” he said.

According to Guillemard’s letter, dated April 28, the province is still planning to explore other means of increasing accountability at Manitoba’s universities and colleges.

This continued public consultation process will be facilitated, in part, through an online survey that is scheduled to be released through the province’s online EngageMB portal (engagemb.ca) later this year.

“Post-secondary institutions are the foundation to providing the resources Manitobans need to unlock their full potential and allows Manitoba to continue to be world renowned for our ideas and innovation,” Guillemard wrote in the letter. “I look forward to working together on achieving this success.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson