Quebec women's centres strike in support of students

Hundreds of thousands of students have been demonstrating against the reduction of funding for university education in Quebec.

Today, Quebec women's centres went on strike in support of the students, stating:

En effet, un système d’éducation accessible est au cœur de la construction d’une société plus démocratique et plus juste. La lutte qui est en cours concerne tout le monde et tout particulièrement les femmes parce qu’elles avaient largement bénéficié de la démocratisation de l'accessibilité aux études : accès à de meilleurs emplois et à de meilleurs salaires, augmentation de la participation aux débats publics, amélioration de l’autonomie économique et de leur émancipation.

[my rough translation:

Effectively, accessible education is at the heart of the effort to build a just and democratic society. The struggle that is happening now concerns everyone, especially women, because women have largely benefited from making education accessible through access to better jobs and salaries, increased participation in public demate, economic autonomy and emancipation.]

Linking cuts to university education to cuts to health, women, and first nations, they issued a statement via video as well (in French). It states, among other things, they have followed 11 weeks of protest and deplore the use of pepper spray on peaceful student demonstrators, calling it disproportionate and gratuitous:

Analyzing the Quebec student demonstrations

A group of self-described progressive economists have called out CBC's Rex Murphy on some simplistic "stop complaining' analysis and considering how funding for universities has changed.

I couldn't agree more. I have been frustrated at the media analysis of the Quebec student protests, which seem to ask only how Quebec tuition compares to tuition in other provinces, but don't look at the dramatic changes to the Quebec education system being proposed by the Charest government.

I think it is important to consider more than this-- in particular the percentage of the cost of education covered by tuition, and how it has changed over time. Quebec is looking to shift the funding burden for universities from the province to the students, a mistake made in BC while I was studying for my BA.

When I started at UVIC in 1988, student tuition covered 12% of the cost of the university budget. in 2011, UVIC's annual review reported student tuition covers 21% of the universities budget. [pdf].

In 2009, after a round of 30% per year tuition increases, UVIC conducted a study on the impact on students (pdf) that is worth a read. UVIC worked hard to increase grants to students and address these problems. The 2011 review cited above also shows this increase in grants and support.

Anyone can compare the funding situation of universities in BC because university audits are public and published on the Ministry of Advanced Education website here.