FPSE Statement on Funding Crisis at BC Colleges and Special Purpose Teaching Universities
For immediate release
November 14, 2024
The Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC (FPSE) is calling on the provincial government to address the burgeoning funding crisis at our colleges and universities. The arbitrary and sudden policy shift by the federal government to cut the number of international students in Canada, along with other changes that make Canada a less attractive place to study, has created a fiscal crisis across our sector. This rapid shift has exposed a systemic weakness in the post-secondary funding model in BC and raised important questions about the future of our colleges and special purpose teaching universities.
In January, the federal government announced a 35% cut in new international student permits for 2024. Additional announcements followed in rapid succession, including a further 10% cut beginning in 2025, new limits on off-campus work hours for international students, and stricter eligibility requirements for post-graduation work permits (PGWPs). These latter restrictions are particularly onerous for graduates of public colleges, who are no longer eligible for PGWPs except under extremely limited labour market conditions. Most of these changes took effect promptly, long after enrolment and revenue projections had been made for the fiscal year at BC colleges and special purpose teaching universities.
The reality is that the provincial government encouraged the rapid growth of international student recruitment as an alternative to properly funding post-secondary institutions. Our Federation has continually warned of the risk of this approach in recent years, and our worst fears have now been realized. This crisis is a direct result of the province’s lack of planning and general neglect with respect to our sector. Faculty associations across the province are being summoned to meetings and briefed on job losses and program cuts. These cuts will gut the quality of post-secondary education in BC and undermine access to education across the province unless the government takes decisive action.
Five-Point Action Plan
We are calling on the provincial government to adopt a five-point action plan:
- Complete the abandoned funding formula review that was started in 2022 to provide for a stable, predictable model of funding.
- Create a hardship fund, in line with the $900 million set aside in Ontario, that institutions can access in order to ensure the ongoing quality and sustainability of programs designed to allow students to study in their own community.
- Allow institutions to draw down on reserves to maintain programming and course offerings.
- Aggressively lobby the federal government to moderate or eliminate some of these changes along with implementing a period of transition to allow institutions to adapt.
- Ensure that regional institutions are not adversely affected by these changes and that students in smaller communities are not forced to move or withdraw from a program all together.
We have already started this lobby campaign and intend to ramp up once the new cabinet is sworn in next week.
For further information or comment, please contact FPSE Executive Director Michael Conlon at (604) 873-8988 or info@fpse.ca.
FPSE is the provincial voice of 10,000 faculty and staff at BC’s universities, colleges, institutes, and private-sector institutions. We provide resources and access to legal services, and we engage in advocacy on behalf of our 18 member locals and the public post-secondary system.
Solidarity with McGill law professors
June 10, 2024
Delegates expressed their solidarity with members of the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), who took to the picket lines on April 24 after more than a year and a half of stalled negotiations. More than 95% of the AMPL membership voted 76% in favour of an indefinite strike.
Fresh off the picket lines on the third day of Council, AMPL President Evan Fox-Decent thanked delegates for their support. On behalf of AMPL, he received a $1 million cheque for financial assistance from CAUT’s Defence Fund.
You can help show your support for AMPL by taking any of the following actions:
- Send a message to McGill to demand that the university meet with AMPL and negotiate in good faith
- Follow AMPL on X, formerly Twitter and on LinkedIn to help amplify their messages
- Read more about AMPL’s indefinite strike on our website
Open Letter re: Naloxone
June 10, 2024
https://sidneyshouldbehere.ca/open-letter-to-2/
Solidarity Statement with Palestine
Nov. 17, 2023
We express our sincere solidarity to the people of Gaza as well as all our faculty colleagues, staff, and students with ties to Palestine. The suffering and escalating violence in Gaza is unconscionable and must stop.
On October 7th, Hamas attacked Israeli civilian populations, killing over 1,200 Israelis while also taking hostages. Since that day, and as of the time of writing, over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces. Further, Israel has blockaded food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel while bombing civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. This dire situation has been described by Jewish Voice for Peace as a genocide.
The DCFA recognizes and grieves Israeli and Palestinian lives that have been lost in this latest cycle of conflict We also recognize that the maintenance of a 75-year occupation involving illegal settlements and an apartheid settler colonial state have disproportionately affected the indigenous Palestinian population, with over 100,000 Palestinians displaced from Gaza since 2010 alone, and with political prisoners being held in Israel.
We are concerned the unfolding genocide will exacerbate anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We denounce hate groups seeking to capitalize on the loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives.
We call on all involved parties to achieve an immediate ceasefire, de-escalation of the conflict, passage for humanitarian aid, and release of hostages and political prisoners.
In solidarity,
ARAC (Anti-Racist Action Committee) Sources:
Jewish Voice for Peace. 2023. “As repression grows, so does solidarity.” https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/11/13/repression-and-solidarity/
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 2020. “Overview | 2010-2019: A decade in numbers.” https://www.ochaopt.org/page/publications1#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20a%20total%20of,the%20p ast%20decade%20to%203%2C624
Black Lives Matter Support Statement – Jan. 13, 2022
We, the DCFA Anti-Racism Action Committee, would like to extend our solidarity with the global Black Lives Matter Movement, and to support the general BIPOC communities.
We understand and recognize that this past summer, a spark was ignited which catapulted into the largest recorded Civil Rights movement in world history. Years of abuse, oppression, genocide, and mistreatment of Black and Indigenous peoples in the US, Canada, and around the world had taken its gruesome toll, and the murder of George Floyd was the final straw. We realize that this is not just an American problem, but it is most definitely a Canadian problem, as well as a global problem – let us not forget Regis Korchinski-Paquet, D’Andre Campbell, Sean Thompson, Abdirahman Abdi, and many more Black and Indigenous Canadian victims of police violence.
Since this movement began, many educational institutions, businesses, and organizations have come forward with their statements of solidarity, showing support for the Black Lives Matter Movement. We, the DCFA Anti-Racism Action Committee, acknowledge that we have a responsibility as members of the Douglas College community, to voice our own support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and as a newly formed committee, think it is important that this be our first action.
In times of great inequality and oppression, silence is complicity.
This is especially the case when coming from a position of great privilege. As an Educational Institution, entrusted with the education of our communities, Douglas College must be a leader in social movements. We call on the Douglas College community to publicly stand against police brutality and discrimination towards the Black and Indigenous communities. To stand against the current hate crimes that are happening towards the East Asian Community, as well as all forms of discrimination and bigotry towards the South Asian, Muslim, and Latinx communities, and any forms of racism that may exist in any way, shape, or form.
In addition, the DCFA Anti-Racism Action Committee calls upon the Douglas College administration to publicly announce their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, to pledge to be allies to everyone who is a part of the BIPOC community, and to promise to proactively support the change of policies and practices that perpetuate racism within Douglas College and the broader community.