As Canadian post-secondary education implements equity standards and demographics shift, funding isn’t following
Illustration by Sage Blackwell.
Post-secondary institutions in British Columbia are currently under review to address growing financial challenges, following federal limits on international students and declining domestic enrolment. Despite the obvious need for more funding, the B.C. post-secondary minister says more provincial funding is currently not an option.
The short timeline of the B.C. post-secondary review has raised concerns for many student organizations, including UVic’s own Graduate Students Society, who say that the four-month review “limits meaningful participation by students, faculty, and staff.” Some groups are concerned that this review is being used to justify “predetermined cuts at the expense of students.”
These fears are not unwarranted. On Feb. 12, the Ontario government announced that they were ending the seven-year freeze on tuition and significantly reducing the maximum amount of Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) grants students can receive, from 85 per cent to 25 per cent, with loans making up the remainder of the funding.
In tandem with looming budget cuts, right-wing groups such as OneBC are rallying to further defund post-secondary institutions like UVic and the University of British Columbia, which they’ve called “radical leftist” institutions, and have called for removing “woke” policies like DEI from our post-secondary sector.
Unfortunately, threats based on anti-equity standards are not toothless. In early February, the University of Alberta moved to scrap DEI/EDI practices in their hiring process. Through an access to information request, CBC obtained documents exploring the reasoning behind this decision. CBC found that among reasons cited were “burnout from some staff taking on EDI work, a need for more practical resources, and a lack of representation of women and Indigenous faculty and students in STEM fields.”
Ironically, the University of Alberta’s solution to lacking both the resources and staff to make DEI effective — proving the necessity of diversifying their staff and students through these policies — is, apparently, to throw out the program altogether after only six years of it being in place.
The perfect storm for post-secondary education in Canada is brewing. Cuts to funding, limits on international student enrolment, and attacks on equitable practices all contribute to a more hostile post-secondary student experience. In tandem with rising discrimination and attacks on gender diverse people, immigrants, and racialized communities, the nourishing diversity of Canadian higher education is under threat.
According to the 2021 census, Canada leads in education globally, with 57.5 per cent of working-age adults holding a post-secondary degree. While this statistic is a source of pride for the nation, it would not have been possible without diversity and inclusion practices. The history of women’s enrolment in Canadian post-secondary institutions offers one example.
In 1920, women only accounted for 16 per cent of post-secondary enrolment in Canada. A century later, gender demographics in Canadian higher education have drastically shifted. Since the 1990s, women have outnumbered men in Canadian post-secondary institution enrolments. In the 2023–24 school year, 1.266 million women were enrolled in post-secondary, surpassing the 1.016 million men enrolled. In B.C., women accounted for 48.2 per cent of enrolled post-secondary students, compared with 43 per cent for men, and the remaining 8.8 per cent being students of an “unknown gender.”
Contributing factors to a rise in women’s enrolment were national equity initiatives that addressed workplace and access disparities based on gender, race, and disability. These include the 1977 Canadian Human Rights Act, the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the 1986 Employment Equity Act. As employment opportunities became more equitable in Canada, the enrolment of women in post-secondary education followed.
Interestingly enough, however, beginning in 1994, Canadian post-secondary institutions went through massive financial strains due to reduced federal funding of several billion dollars. This coincided with movements against “political correctness” in post-secondary institutions, the backlash against which de-incentivised institutions from acting on the equity initiatives set over the previous decades. Money invested in controversial (at the time) equity practices was sidelined, as institutions struggled to keep the lights on. Tuition rose up to 8 per cent a year for students, hiring freezes were implemented, student loans were rearranged at the expense of provincial budgets, and the amount of money paid out in student loans increased as provincial grants were reduced.
Sound familiar?
As attacks against equity standards are becoming more commonplace across Canada, our post-secondary sector is also under increased strain. This is not the first time that the death rattle of exclusionary cultural values has accompanied a lashing-out against post-secondary funding, as a means of controlling who is included in our institutions. In fact, the pushback against DEI policies shows how essential these practices are in Canadian higher education’s growth. If new and diverse perspectives are considered a threat to Canadian post-secondary, it exposes how lacking in diversity our institutions already are.
DEI practices are only the beginning when it comes to addressing issues impacting marginalized communities in Canada. However, they are an integral starting point for Canadian institutions to identify the sites where equity challenges exist, should they choose to listen (I’m looking at you, University of Alberta!)
Diversity is both a strength of our institutions and a sign of growth, but it has to start with proper funding for the chance to truly flourish.
