LETHBRIDGE -- A number of staff at the University of Lethbridge aren't happy with the province's decision to tie funding with performance targets.
“You wind up perverting the institution to meet these goals,” said University of Lethbridge faculty association president David Kaminski.
The province’s new funding system will have universities and colleges strive for individual targets such as graduation and completion rates, post-graduate employment, experiential learning, enrolment, quality of teaching and many more.
Kaminski opposes a system where post-secondary education funding is focused on achieving these targets to ensure their funding.
“People are going to be concerned with meeting these particular thresholds,” he said. “Some of these thresholds the UCP through their program cuts, have made difficult to reach.”
Other targets might not be so intriguing for school’s to pursue, he adds.
“Employment of graduates? Does that mean university has to hire someone to stalk grads to find out if they are working?” wonders Kaminski.
“It’s easy to guarantee 100 per cent completion rates – you just hand a diploma or a degree to anyone who shows ups.”
Funding for post-secondary is also being changed to a three-year investment management agreement with the schools. The province feels the move will better predict long-term funding and prevent institutions from changing course on an annual basis.
“As an administration, how are you going to be able to guess whether you’re going to get that consistent amount of money?"
Officials say post-secondary funding will be tied to performance-based outcomes beginning April 1st.
