the briefing room

According to a new report, total state support for higher education in the US fell by 7.6% from the 2011 to the 2012 fiscal years. As a whole, state spending on PSE is now nearly 4% lower than it was in the 2007 fiscal year, with 29 states appropriating less for PSE institutions this year than they did 5 years ago. The current year’s large decline was due partly to the expiration of approximately $40 billion in federal funding given to states to prop up education spending. Factoring out the federal stimulus funding, state support for institutions fell a little more than 4% from 2011 to 2012. The overall decline is also a result of the big drop in PSE spending in California, accounting for over a quarter of the total decrease in state support. The Chronicle of Higher Education (free access) (Academicagroup)

New Brunswick’s post-secondary institutions are doing their best to boost enrolment, but need assistance from the provincial government to make them more competitive.

So says Dennis Cochrane, the president and vice-chancellor of St. Thomas University, and his counterparts at the University of New Brunswick and Mount Allison University.

“We all get a small amount of money, but where we need the help is in international recruiting,” said Cochrane, a former Tory party leader in New Brunswick and deputy education minister in Nova Scotia. “When we go abroad, it is hard for us to create a presence.

“That is where we need more support and better co-ordination.”

Cochrane believes the provincial government should take a leadership role and help promote all four of New Brunswick’s universities as a group. (The Université de Moncton is the fourth.) …

(Source: telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com)