![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CREDIT-KIM-PRINGLETHE-UBYSSEY.jpg\")
<\/a>The Research Universities Council of BC, representing UBC, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, University of Northern BC, Royal Roads University and Thompson Rivers University, recently re-released a report they\u2019d originally publicized back in October 2012. The report shows, based on the government\u2019s own jobs data, that job-market demand for university graduates in BC will outstrip supply by 2016.<\/p>\n
But the Liberals are still committed to staying the course on their plan to beef up trade and technical programs at key schools, while giving post-secondary grants across the province an overall $41 million cut by 2014. The NDP opposes this cut, but the party has yet to reveal whether it will prioritize research-based universities or skills-based trade certification programs in its post-secondary platform.<\/p>\n
University of Victoria President David Turpin said the province needs a variety of education options so young people can choose what path they\u2019ll take to try to obtain employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrades are valuable, college diplomas are valuable, university degrees are valuable. What\u2019s important is that there be space in the system for every qualified student,\u201d Turpin said. \u201cI\u2019m a firm believer in this being driven by demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when given a chance to speak at a recent invitation-only event promoting student involvement, UBC President Stephen Toope took a more adversarial stance. He argued that a trade-school education, while helpful for employment, doesn\u2019t help students become versatile and agile leaders.<\/p>\n
While the overall cut in operating grants has shrunk the number of funded spaces available at many schools in the province, targeted capital spending has allowed some schools to expand. Emily Carr University of Art and Design was given over $100 million to expand into a new campus in late January.<\/p>\n
And Thompson Rivers University (a mid-size institution that is part of the Research Universities\u2019 Council, but also houses a good number of trade certification programs) was just given $1.39 million specifically for heavy equipment used by trades and technology students.<\/p>\n
This shows the shift in priorities as laid out by BC Liberal minister of advanced education John Yap when he took over the cabinet post in September of last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaxpayers invest $5 million each and every single day to support the [BC post-secondary] system. The four major research universities\u0143UBC, SFU, UVic, UNBC\u0143receive more than half of the operating grants provided to the 25 institutions,\u201d said Yap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make sure that we\u2019re training people for the jobs that need to be filled,\u201d Yap added.<\/p>\n
Turpin argues that a significant uptick in funding should be given to schools\u2019 operating budgets, rather than just focusing on affordability for needy students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quality of our programs is going to erode,\u201d says Turpin. \u201cAnd that is a long-term problem for the province of British Columbia. Our view is that the investments we\u2019re calling for are truly investments. By generating talented people for society, they\u2019re going to be able to give back through the tax system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A limited pot of post-secondary funding in BC has begun to pit the province\u2019s large research universities and trade schools against one another. As technical and skills-based programs at schools were given sizeable sums in recent weeks as part of the BC Liberals\u2019 Jobs Plan funding rollout, a group representing research universities\u2019 interests across the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-february-20-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6312"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6315,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6312\/revisions\/6315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}