BC Govt releases Campus 20/20

This document is a discussion of the BC government's vision for post secondary education in BC.

Report recommendations for graduate studies and research include:

"40. Limit granting of doctoral degrees to the four provincial universities.

41. Building on the recent commitment to create 2,500 new graduate student
spaces by 2010, develop a plan to implement the BC Access and Excellence
Strategy target of the highest per capita enrolment of graduate students in
Canada by 2015.

42. Allocate the new graduate student spaces to UBC, UVic and SFU in proportions
similar to the existing distribution of research funding and graduate student
enrolment.

43. Establish an expanded program of graduate student financial aid to ensure no
qualified applicant for graduate studies is denied access on the basis of financial
circumstances.

44. Increase and thereafter maintain direct investment in research and innovation in
public post-secondary institutions sufficient to ensure BC is in the three highest
spending provinces by 2010.

45. Implement a “Georgia Strait” research cluster initiative by ensuring that at least
95 per cent of all provincial research funding is awarded to UBC, SFU and UVic.

46. Establish a continuing commercialization strategy to ensure that the province
and post-secondary institutions are maximizing opportunities to benefit from
commercially realizable research discoveries.

47. Task the Higher Education Board to develop and report on performance
measures with respect to results from provincial funding for research."

Victory on Fellowships .. partly

The campaign has paid off, we have achieved a significant improvement to the UVIC fellowship policy. It is not perfect, but it does provide more economic security for fellowship holders.

UVIC's new policy will be:
Fellowship cheques and cheques for all scholarships at UVIC (including the new BC Graduate Student Scholarships) will not be withheld unless tuition is unpaid in the previous semester. Therefore, students starting in September will receive their cheques in Septembr, October, November, December without interruption, but MUST pay their tuition by the end of December.
Late fees will apply as for any other student.

This policy will stand until the NOVA system is in place, allowing more flexibility for installments of tuition to be taken off cheques paid to students by UVIC.

The full text of the letter from FGS about this change is available in letter format outside the GSS office.

Stacy