A sign that academic freedom is the hot topic in education, the first major public gesture by Pascale Déry, Minister of Higher Education, was to take a stand on the subject, particularly in pages of To have to. On January 16, in order to set the tone for her new mandate, she contacted the leaders of Quebec universities in order to reiterate her full and complete collaboration in “the protection of fundamental and universal values, such as freedom of teaching and research” and in the application of the Academic Freedom Act in the university environment.
Although academic freedom requires an unfettered performative space that allows discourse to be delivered independently, it also requires favorable financial and material conditions.
While the average deadlines for submitting a dissertation or doctoral thesis continue to lengthen, the human sciences seem to be devalued to the detriment of economic imperatives and an increasingly large percentage of students and simply do not complete their graduate studies, one wonders if the government is doing anything to ensure that this academic freedom can really be put into practice by young researchers. To have the freedom to say something in academia, you still have to have the means.
First difficulty, the amounts of scholarships have not increased for several years. If, for the past few months, Quebecers have had to live with inflation, graduate students are no strangers to this new reality since they have to face it with the financial means of the early 2000s. Thus, scholarships awarded for higher education are essentially comparable to the salary of a first student job. The amounts of scholarships from the Fonds de recherche du Québec for master’s and doctoral studies (respectively $17,500/year over two years and $21,000/year over four years) are less than the minimum wage over a forty-hour week .
Second difficulty, the grants awarded by the Quebec Research Funds (through its three components Nature and technologies, Health and Society and culture) are the poor relatives of grants for higher education. The exercise is simple, ask a student to list the scholarships he or she wishes to obtain. The first in the ranking will inevitably be financed in whole or in part by the federal government. As an indication, among the best scholarships offered by federal programs (annual amount, generally over three years), we find the Vanier scholarships ($50,000), the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Foundation scholarships ($40,000) and scholarships from the Canada Graduate Scholarships program at the doctoral level ($35,000).
Thus, if we really want to encourage academic freedom, it is still necessary that the financial conditions make possible the emergence of a discourse, a debate and new ideas. In academia, money is time. Time to acquire knowledge, a general culture, a network, to do research in archives, in the laboratory or in the field, to carry out analyses, to purchase equipment, etc. In short, time to advance science and research and to participate in the dynamism of the university environment with as few constraints as possible.
If the notions of skills and excellence really take precedence in the eyes of Minister Pascale Déry and the government of François Legault, the Quebec State will make the appropriate choices allowing this excellence to live and flourish freely and without financial hindrance. It is in this way that we can also ensure the pluralism of ideas and the liberation of thought. If we really want to bring this academic freedom to life, it would still be necessary for young researchers to be able to access this environment with adequate financial means.
Quebec therefore has before it an opportunity to set itself apart from the federal government in terms of education, a prerogative that it should nevertheless lead with a masterful hand. It could therefore correct a fiscal imbalance encouraging the federal government to invest in areas of provincial jurisdiction. To speak like the Premier, it would be a great source of pride for Quebec to be able to fund university research commensurate with its talents and skills.
While the criteria of the Canada Research Chairs Program seem to be making a lot of noise, the Minister of Higher Education has all the tools to ensure the material conditions of this academic freedom, and this, according to conditions that could be determined by and for Quebec.