The inevitable budget cuts ...

Colleges and Universities A-Z McGill University
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<p>I'm quite sad to see this situation, but it was of course inevitable - with a huge provincial deficit and complete resistance to any tuition hikes the solution the government has now adopted is <em>retroactive</em> budget cuts.</p>

<p>McGill</a> University passes motion against budget cuts - Montreal - CBC News</p>

<p>"Heather Munroe-Blum, McGill's principal, called the belt-tightening measures "draconian, unpredictable, [and] ineffective to running a quality-accessibility university system."</p>

<p>Sun</a> News : $124M budget cut a tough pill for Quebec universities</p>

<p>"Schools have been given until April to make the cuts as the province tries to eliminate a $1.6-billion deficit by next year ... The decision drew a harsh rebuke from Heather Monroe-Blum, principal of McGill University. In a letter to students and staff last week, she said Quebec is shooting itself in the foot by squeezing the institutions that produce future leaders who can grow the economy."</p>

<p>Unfortunately this <em>is</em> going to affect the quality of education at all Quebec schools, McGill included.</p>

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<p>…:(</p>

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<p>The PQ minority government may not survive the Spring. One can only hope.</p>

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<p>Not happy with it either, but I don’t think it’s just a matter of who’s in power. McGill may have strong ties with the Liberal parties (both at the federal and provincial level), and what does it get for it? More money [wasted</a> on corruption.](<a href=“http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/09/18/quebec-corruption-unit-search-muhc.html]wasted”>Anti-corruption unit raids McGill superhospital offices | CBC News) It’ll just have to learn to play the [political</a> game with the PQ](<a href=“http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/education/366425/l-argent-sera-t-il-au-rendez-vous]political”>Universités - L’argent sera-t-il au rendez-vous? | Le Devoir), whose role it seems is to try and fix the Liberals’ mismanagement of public funds, who, next time they get in power, will also try and fix the PQ’s mismanagement. What either party accomplishes during their reign is mostly enriching the friends of the party. The PQ however, has also done some good things…</p>

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<p>The situation is actually a lot worse than it seems. While the cuts directly to universities have made it big on the news, there have been some other reductions that are much more insidious relating to research funding at the federal and provincial levels.</p>

<p>See here: [Guest</a> Post: Is Canada Retreating From Science? | The Agenda](<a href=“http://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/guest-post-canada-retreating-science]Guest”>http://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/guest-post-canada-retreating-science)</p>

<p>"The program cuts are not driven by a decrease in the budget to NSERC. The program cuts are instead the result of a transfer of funds away from people and discovery into new programs giving money to businesses, a transformation characterized by the recent report of the federal R&D panel as “mission drift.” </p>

<p>Now we also get huge provincial cuts in basic science funding (sorry, French only):</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/366098/les-chercheurs-se-mobilisent-contre-les-coupes]Fonds”&gt;Fonds de recherche du Québec - Les chercheurs se mobilisent contre les coupes | Le Devoir]Fonds</a> de recherche du Qu</p>

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<p>The 30% cuts to FRQNT’s budget is particularly insane in light of the fact that the social science equivalent, FRQSC, only gets a 10% cut. I’m all for social sciences, but the up front costs are lower than in natural sciences and engineering. That is the most frustrating thing about politics: it has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with common sense or the common good.</p>

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<p>Thank you for starting this thread. I am aware of these cuts and have been waiting to see some discussion of their effects.</p>

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<p>But perhaps FRQSC didn’t have much money to start with.</p>

<p>Then again, there is a lot of administrative bloating at McGill so if one can identify the administrative bloating, then we should act on it before it affects teaching quality.</p>