Concordia has signed a performance contract with the Quebec government worth $51-million, which will be paid over three years. About 40 per cent of the money is targeted, one-time funding to specific areas or projects.
The targeted funds – $6.3-million in the first year, then $4.8-million in the second and third years – will go to pay for things like libraries, new information technologies and fellowships for students studying overseas, said vice-rector (research) and provost, Dr. Jack Lightstone.
One million dollars of the non-recurring funds will pay for the startup of software engineering courses, while another $500,000 will be used by the cinema school for converting to digital equipment.
The university also said it will spend money to improve student-faculty ratios. Lightstone said appropriate ratios range from 20 student per full-time faculty in sciences, engineering and fine arts to 25 or 28 in political science and administration.
“I don’t think the government has given enough money to bring it all the way down. We might get half-way there,” Lightstone said, adding that the current ratios are about six students more than the desirable number.
While Concordia will be receiving $21-million in new recurring funding by the end of the contract, Lightstone was concerned with the possibility that the government would not continue paying for costs related to salary increases and inflation, which is what happened this year. That cost Concordia about $3-million, he said.
“The fact that they [the Ministry of Education] haven’t paid has eaten up 60 per cent of the so-called re-investment [in the university’s base budget], unless they back pay us,” Lightstone added.
If the government fails to pay for inflation for the duration of the performance contract, $9-million of the $21-million of extra yearly funding will disappear.
For this and other reasons, it is still not possible to know how much of the new money will go to reducing the administration fee, Lightstone said.
The university administration promised it would discuss using part of any new untargeted government funding to reduce or eliminate the $9 per credit administration fee.
CSU president Rob Green said student members of the university senate have been waiting a long time to discuss the issue. The administration had tabled the question for many months because they did not know the final details of the performance contract, he said.
While the administration was hailing the signing of the contract as a promising agreement, Green said he still does not support the idea of a performance contract.
“I’m still against the notion of performance-based contracts. It takes away the democratic autonomy of universities. It imposes a corporate management style on public institutions.”
He said the administration should ask for a wholesale restaration of education funding, rather than asking for an amount the government is willing to give.
The targeted funds – $6.3-million in the first year, then $4.8-million in the second and third years – will go to pay for things like libraries, new information technologies and fellowships for students studying overseas, said vice-rector (research) and provost, Dr. Jack Lightstone.
One million dollars of the non-recurring funds will pay for the startup of software engineering courses, while another $500,000 will be used by the cinema school for converting to digital equipment.
The university also said it will spend money to improve student-faculty ratios. Lightstone said appropriate ratios range from 20 student per full-time faculty in sciences, engineering and fine arts to 25 or 28 in political science and administration.
“I don’t think the government has given enough money to bring it all the way down. We might get half-way there,” Lightstone said, adding that the current ratios are about six students more than the desirable number.
While Concordia will be receiving $21-million in new recurring funding by the end of the contract, Lightstone was concerned with the possibility that the government would not continue paying for costs related to salary increases and inflation, which is what happened this year. That cost Concordia about $3-million, he said.
“The fact that they [the Ministry of Education] haven’t paid has eaten up 60 per cent of the so-called re-investment [in the university’s base budget], unless they back pay us,” Lightstone added.
If the government fails to pay for inflation for the duration of the performance contract, $9-million of the $21-million of extra yearly funding will disappear.
For this and other reasons, it is still not possible to know how much of the new money will go to reducing the administration fee, Lightstone said.
The university administration promised it would discuss using part of any new untargeted government funding to reduce or eliminate the $9 per credit administration fee.
CSU president Rob Green said student members of the university senate have been waiting a long time to discuss the issue. The administration had tabled the question for many months because they did not know the final details of the performance contract, he said.
While the administration was hailing the signing of the contract as a promising agreement, Green said he still does not support the idea of a performance contract.
“I’m still against the notion of performance-based contracts. It takes away the democratic autonomy of universities. It imposes a corporate management style on public institutions.”
He said the administration should ask for a wholesale restaration of education funding, rather than asking for an amount the government is willing to give.
