As a way of focusing my posts for this site, I have been searching for an area where broad discussion is needed in Ontario. The more I thought about it the more it became clear that the area in need of the greatest illumination and discussion was university budgets and inflation. I chose this topic for two reasons. First, this is the big year for major components of University budgets. From inputs, there is the current negotiations around the post reaching higher plan being developed provincially, which also means a discussion around tuition fee levels in Ontario. On outputs, there are currently negotiations going on across Ontario related to the largest expenditure from the operating budget – salaries. In addition, OUSA is currently working on a paper related to university inflation, so this will give us a chance to discuss the research as it unfolds.
In the coming months, I will be narrowing my focus to a few key topics:
1) The makeup of a university budget (key income and expenditures)
2) University inflation
3) The return on a higher price tag for PSE (does paying more mean
getting more?)
For now, however, in the interest of spiking your interest further, I would like to direct your attention to Jeffrey Simpson’s article from
the Globe and Mail CLICK HERE. The article, while not focused on PSE, does a very good job of highlighting the difficult situation that the public sector is now facing (I should note that I don’t agree with everything stated, but it is a worthwhile read regardless).
-Justin Williams
