CANADA

Liberal budget could affect Quebec university funding

A decline in donations to Quebec universities could seriously affect provincial funding to individual institutions if the current Liberal budget is implemented in the next academic year, writes Laura Beeston for The Montreal Gazette.

The education minister’s budget expects Quebec universities to come up with $54 million in additional combined donations by 2017. Their objective is to increase donations to universities from $111 million – the average amount of combined donations Quebec universities reached per year between 2004 and 2009 – to $165 million of total donations from individuals and businesses.

Universities will be asked to encourage more donations through a new programme created and introduced by the government this year called Placements Universités. While very little information is available about the specifics of the programme, it will set fundraising growth objectives for each institution and expect the level of their donations to increase by 8% annually for the next five years. To “encourage philanthropy”, the programme will give a matching grant relative to the amount of money universities receive in fundraising.
Full report on The Montreal Gazette site