At a time when Quebec universities estimate their financial needs at hundreds of millions of dollars, a slowdown in hiring, the increased use of entirely remote courses and the increased workload are some of the issues that concern several professors and lecturers joined by The duty.
The financial challenges facing Quebec universities are major. This is particularly the case for Concordia University, which currently estimates its shortfall at $35 million, compared to $14.3 million just two years ago. A situation that is mainly attributable to declining enrollment, as the university derives 87% of its revenue from tuition fees and related government subsidies. In 2019, this deficit was 8.9 million.
In this context, the English-speaking establishment froze the salaries of members of management and applied a freeze on the hiring of non-teaching staff, “except for positions essential to [sa] assignment “. Measures that worry the Concordia University Professors’ Association.
“So far, university management has informed us of a salary freeze for senior management staff. Department heads were also asked to drop classes [auxquels il y a sous-inscription] in order to limit costs, which is of great concern to us,” the union wrote in an email to Duty. He said in particular that he feared that the university’s abandonment of certain less popular courses would undermine “the coherence of the programs and [ait] a negative impact on the workload of teachers.
At McGill University, which did not respond to questions from Dutya hiring freeze targeting both teaching and administrative staff was announced on 1er last December. Mario Roy, president of the Association of Graduate Student Employees of McGill, which represents the institution’s teaching assistants, is concerned that these budgetary restrictions will ultimately increase the workload of his members, whose union is is currently fighting to alleviate working conditions and improve wages. “With the announced budget cuts, we fear that the problems we are already experiencing will worsen. »
Important needs
The University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) estimates its annual shortfall at $50 million. A sum which reaches 104 million on the side of Laval University, which still expects to be able to balance its budget this year, after having continued last year with “work to update its budgetary framework and integrated risk management”. Thus, “we consider that we undeniably lack the financial means to develop our university,” confirms spokesperson Simon La Tacteur.
The University of Sherbrooke, for its part, notes that balancing its budget from one year to the next “necessarily comes at the cost of underinvestment in technological infrastructure and in teaching support measures.” and research” due to “underfunding” by the State. “In the long term, these underinvestments have a significant impact on our establishments. »
The president of the Quebec Federation of University Professors, Madeleine Pastinelli, notes that professors often have to take care of administrative tasks that were not previously their responsibility when universities limit the hiring of different types of employees. “The workload of teachers has become untenable,” she denounces.
At the same time, universities are offering more and more online courses, which allow the registration of more students despite a limited number of professors. Laval University thus saw the number of its courses offered entirely remotely increase from 393 to 893 between fall 2019 and fall 2023, and the share of students registered only for this type of course, from 18% to 29%. At the University of Montreal, 6% of courses are only offered online, compared to 2% four years ago, while at the University of Sherbrooke, the percentage of students registered for distance learning courses has doubled since 2019 and reached 8.2% last fall.
UQAM indicates that “a quarter of [ses] course groups have a distance, hybrid or comodal component.” A situation that concerns Olivier Aubry, president of the Union of Teachers of UQAM, which represents the establishment’s lecturers. “If we have less income, very often, we will make cuts in the cost envelope or in services. This is where it becomes more complicated for us, if we cut certain courses or we tend to increase the number of students per course,” notably by offering more distance learning, notes Mr. Aubry.
The digital shift, not a panacea
TELUQ University, which gives all its courses online, affirms for its part that this digital shift is not a miracle solution to improve the financial state of post-secondary institutions. The university is actually forecasting a deficit of $3 million this year, says its general director, Lucie Laflamme. And this, despite a jump in its students observed in the context of the pandemic. A situation which can be explained by the fact that 92% of its 20,000 students are part-time. The university only benefits from funding equivalent to 4,000 full-time students from the Legault government, which limits its ability to recruit professors and employees.
However, to do online teaching well, “it takes resources, it takes infrastructure and support from our teachers. And in fact, if we just increase the classes, we can question the quality of the supervision,” continues M.me The flame.
Joined by The duty, the office of the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, ensures that it is “aware of the challenges that universities may currently face”. The new university funding policy expected this year should also be “adapted to the needs and reality” of them, we assure. M’s officeme Déry also notes that the growth in budgets allocated by Quebec to universities is around 39% since 2018. “Never has a government invested so much in higher education,” it is said.