Federal budget consultations: making the case for grad students

The federal government is hosting budget consultations, and have a simple online form where citizens can submit their comments.


These consultations are a simple way to let the federal government know what you think of federal funding for graduate study and the role of graduate study in the economy.

 

Not sure what to say? Check out the following information sources... they spark a lot of ideas about the role of graduate school, and the impact it has on our society.

 

The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies has this letter to the Federal Government on how to better support graduate studies and Canada's low (2nd last by OECD ranking) investment in graduate education:

 

1. Investing in the granting councils
2. Investing in international grad students in Canada
3. Invest in innovative skills training for grad students and post docs
4. Invest in post docs.

The budget consultation is a venue for supporting this ideas.

 

Perhaps you are interested in your field of research and its role in the economy...

The OECD has all manner of statistics on the impact of education, research and development and how Canada's funding ranks compared to other OECD nations.

 

OECD study on education funding. (Tertiary education is post secondary education, but doesn't break down between a bachelors, masters and PhD).

The OECD database is searchable on many subjects, so you can search for data on our priorities in science and engineering, health, environment, business, education, and doctoral graduates, depending on your interest.

 

For example:

 

In 2011 Canada is below average in OECD for doctoral graduate rates (but is close to average at PhDs awarded to women: 44% of Canadian PhDs - OECD average is 46% -- Canada's rate hasn't changed since 2009, but OECD has gone from 43% to 46% average between 2009 and 2011):

 

 

Direct funding of Research and Development (2011 stats) includes this amazing chart, which shows how those R&D dollars are spent - are they going to defence or universities or health?

 

 

Here is Canada (2009) vs OECD breakdown (2008) by % of direct Research and Development spending:

  

• Defence: Canada 3.2% OECD 31.8%
• Health & Environment: Canada 22.7% OECD: 17.5%
• Economic Development: Canada 25.8% OECD 15%
• General University Funds: Canada 33.3% OECD 16.1%
• Non-oriented: Canada 7.7% OECD 11.3%
• Other Canada 7.3% OECD 8.4%

... but remember that Canada spends less than the OECD average (govt appropriations as % of GDP) on research and development:

 

Spending on R&D as % of GDP (2010): Canada .61% OECD average .75%

 

 

oil company funding for university energy research comes under scrutiny

BP and nine other major oil companies's funding for research into alternative energy has come under scrutiny in a report by Jennifer Washburn at thinktank the Centre for American Progress.

What makes the report particularly interesting is the detailed analysis of the contracts between the universities and the oil companies, and the amount of control given to the companies in the contracts.

The contracts characteristics are highlighted in the report:

"• In nine of the 10 energy-research agreements we analyzed, the university partners failed to retain majority academic control over the central governing body charged with directing the university-industry alliance. Four of the 10 alliances actually give the industry sponsors full governance control.
• Eight of the 10 agreements permit the corporate sponsor or sponsors to fully control both the evaluation and selection of faculty research proposals in each new grant cycle.
• None of the 10 agreements requires faculty research proposals to be evaluated and awarded funding based on independent expert peer review, the traditional method for awarding academic and scientific research grants fairly and impartially based on scientific merit.
• Eight of the 10 alliance agreements fail to specify transparently, in advance, how faculty may apply for alliance funding, and what the specific evaluation and selection criteria will be.
• Nine of the 10 agreements call for no specific management of financial conflicts of interest related to the alliance and its research functions. None of these agreements, for example, specifies that committee members charged with evaluating and selecting faculty research proposals must be impartial, and may not award corporate funding to themselves." (Washburn, October 2o10, p 6)

The author was interviewed on Democracy Now about the study October 18.

Washburn, Jennifer. October 2010. Big Oil Goes Back to College. Centre for American Progress. found October 15, 2910 at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/10/pdf/big_oil_lf.pdf

BC September 2009 budget update and graduate students

BC's September budget update makes little mention of graduate school, graduate students or research, although graduate studies is briefly mentioned as one targeted area of expansion in the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour service plan.

Capital spending is discussed in the budget speech, with $500 million for capital expansion on campuses--$86.4 million is going to UBC's pharmaceutical research facility--which is a drug commercialization facility. The ministry must disclose projects over $50 million, sp presumably the rest of the capital spending falls under that amount. Other major projects mentioned focus on environmental technologies or research, including Okanagan College's Centre for Green Building Technologies ($27.6 million), Energy House project at Northern Lights College ($7.8 million) and 21 million for UNBC's project involving turning waste wood into energy. Indeed, the investment in research and development mentioned in the budget speech is in green energy.

The Ministry's service plan shows an increase in funds directed to post-secondary institutions (5% increase). Bear in mind there is a 2% price index increase over last year, and UVIC is slated to have a 14% increase in graduate enrollement this year. Meanhile there's a 15% cut back to Student Aid BC--this is for ministry spending so whether this will result in cuts to bursaries, and exactly how this will be handled, is not yet clear. But earlier this year, the Pacific Leaders graduate funding was put on hold, and other student support focussed on helping disabled students, nursing students and those needing loan forgiveness was quietly cut in July (see Vancouver Sun article).

Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Development service plan

http://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2009_Sept_Update/sp/pdf/ministry/almd.pdf

Budget speech

http://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2009_Sept_Update/speech/Budget%20Speech_Sept_2009.pdf

Grad Students: Run for Senate!

If you are a graduate student in Business, Human Social Development or Law, consider running for a seat on the UVIC Senate!

It is my humble opinion that we need more graduate students on the Senate! Check out the call for candidates at this link. And you can learn more about the Senate here.

The Senate has many standing committees--including committees on planning, academic standards, libraries, continuing studies--and they all report back to the Senate for approval. So if you are interested in a wide range of issues in how the university is managed, this might be the election for you!

UofT to dump tobacco investments

Found online at macleans.ca. Interesting given the move to consider smoking ban at UVIC.

The University of Toronto is the latest university to alter its investment portfolio, citing ethical concerns. With yesterday’s announcement to divest millions in tobacco stocks, U of T became the first educational institution in Canada to boycott the tobacco industry.

A student activist who successfully campaigned to have U of T sell off its tobacco investments says other Canadian schools should follow suit and end the "unethical practice."

"We hope that other institutions will get a clear message that investing in tobacco companies is an unethical practice and it's something that should not be done," Tyler Ward, president of Education Bringing Youth Tobacco Truths (E-BUTT).

Many universities have taken similar steps for ethical reasons. Recently, Queen’s University divested its holdings in two Chinese oil companies because of their involvement in Darfur.

Read the full story here