The change is setting in
The current economic situation is a good example of this.
The collective strategy employed to contain COVID-19 has given rise to a new problem: high inflation. As a corollary, there is growing pressure on post-secondary institutions to increase their tuition fees. The University of Manitoba, for example, announced at the end of May an average increase of 3.7% in its tuition fees for the next year, in part to “compensate for the increase in the costs associated with teaching activities, in particular rising wages”. Inflation has also been cited in labor disputes by many faculty associations and is the source of demands for an increase in the value of federal scholarships awarded to graduate students. And the list is far from over.
In June, the Bank of Canada raised its key rate for the third time in the space of a few months in order to curb the rise in prices. As it is difficult to attribute the causes of inflationary pressures to national rather than international factors, everything seems to indicate that universities will have to continue to adapt.
One sector, however, seems to have been spared by the economic storm, at least in academia: philanthropy. As Mark Cardwell points out in this issue, Canadian post-secondary institutions raised an impressive $1.7 billion in donations in 2021 (an annual total that dropped only marginally during the pandemic). But what does this enthusiasm of Canadian universities for fundraising mean?
In her feature article, Moira MacDonald discusses the efforts of veterinary schools to address the national shortage of veterinarians, which is another facet of the upheavals of the past few years. And to top off this trio of in-depth articles, University Affairs presents a selection of works of art by Aboriginal artists that have been added to universities across the country over the past decade. This is also an important reminder of the promising changes underway.
Wherever you are at the time of reading these lines, I hope that this summer season will allow you to decompress, to meet up with friends or family and to take a step back from this whirlwind that is imposing itself as new normality.
Ian Munroe
Editor
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