Protecting education means protecting the Université de Moncton

The following is a united position put forward by the Université de Moncton’s president and vice chancellor, the Board of Governors chairman as well as the presidents of the institution’s three student associations and three unions representing faculty members and librarians. It is a response to the public statement made recently by Premier Brian Gallant in which he vowed to protect education in his government's next budget that will take into account the strategic program review.

Protecting education requires a solid French-language university education system in order to ensure a better future for our province. The Université de Moncton contributes to the economic development of New Brunswick in several ways.

• It is helping New Brunswick in its transition to a knowledge-based economy by training new leaders, actors and builders for the province’s economic, political and cultural sectors who come both from New Brunswick’s Acadian and Francophone society and the Canadian and international francophonie.

• It contributes to the government’s strategy on immigration by attracting students from outside the country, some of whom eventually settle here.

• It attracts talented individuals who conduct research and build business opportunities that create jobs.

• It trains people who find employment in New Brunswick. According to the Centre de recherche et de développement en éducation’s survey of the 2013 cohort of Université de Moncton graduates who had completed a bachelor’s degree, 88% were working in New Brunswick; 94% had secured employment within a year after graduation; 87% were working in a job related to their field of study and three out of every four employed graduates were earning more than the average person working in New Brunswick.

• It ensures the viability and development of New Brunswick’s Acadian and Francophone society.

• Through advanced research in all fields of knowledge and through artistic creation, it develops state-of-the-art expertise that, in return, fuels the various knowledge, arts and technology sectors and directly profit private companies, cultural industries and technical innovation. Thus, in this area, it acts also as a key vehicle for the province’s economic and social development.

• Studies have shown that each dollar invested in universities creates at least two dollars of value for society as a whole.

• Finally, the Université de Moncton actively and effectively participates in the development of the province of New Brunswick, contributing to its strategic position on both the national and international stages.

It must be recognized that the Université de Moncton is currently receiving inadequate funding from the provincial government.

• The Board of Governors approved a projected budget deficit of just over a million dollars for the 2015-2016 fiscal exercise. The anticipated deficit is partly due to a drop in registrations. However, decisions made by the provincial government in its March 2015 budget concerning contributions to universities as well as a tuition fee freeze have also impacted the situation. As the tuition fee freeze was not balanced by an increase in contributions, it translates in a reduction in funding that places the province’s universities in a precarious financial situation.

• A collective effort of expenditure rationalization on the part of the Université de Moncton has yielded benefits in terms of progress towards reaching a balanced budget. This measure, that required the participation of managers and unions from all campuses, led to a significant rationalization of expenditures.

• A wage freeze was negotiated for 2015-2016; some senior positions were eliminated; regular positions remained vacant; temporary positions were not renewed and budgets for goods and services were reduced at all campuses.

We conclude that this financial situation is not sustainable in the long term. A major collective effort on the part of government and the entire university community is required to enable the Université de Moncton to continue to fully pursue its mission of education, research and community service.

• We call on the government to grant adequate funding to the Université de Moncton in order to enable the institution to manage its activities without having to increase tuition fees. In order to do so, the government will also need to develop a specific postsecondary investment plan. It cannot limit its action to cutbacks that will only contribute to the deterioration of the quality of education and research in New Brunswick universities.

• The Université de Moncton is New Brunswick’s only French-language university and the largest Francophone university outside Quebec. We, therefore, urge the government to make this distinctive feature an integral part of any modernization of the current funding formula.


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