Grande Prairie Regional College will soon need to "earn" some of their provincial funding through targets they set-out for themselves (Photo: Shaun Penner)

By Shaun Penner

Post-secondary funding

Province unveils new performance-based funding model for colleges, universities

Jan 20, 2020 | 12:54 PM

The provincial government has transformed how schools like GPRC will receive provincial funding.

In Calgary this morning, Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides announced that Alberta’s post-secondary institutions would be transitioning to a performance-based funding model, meaning a portion of funds they would receive would be based upon meeting the targets they set out.

He says the current funding system is not an efficient one because of a lack of accountability and focus on meeting goals, as well as a lack of adaptation to the ever-changing landscape of the job market.

“The current model of investing in post-secondary education is not working in the best possible way,” said Nicolaides. “This is a new and completely transformative funding model for our universities, colleges and polytechnics. Our new approach will help ensure students are set up for success by encouraging institutions to produce job-ready graduates.

“Students make a significant investment in their post-secondary education, and it is essential we do everything possible to give them a rewarding career at the end of their studies. By shifting the focus to performance, we will ensure taxpayer dollars are being used in the most responsible way possible.”

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The new model means that starting April 1, up to 15 per cent of government funds for each school will be linked to measures they set out. That number is to grow to 40 per cent of funding by 2022.

Each goal will be set out by the school itself and agreed upon by the government. Some examples of target goals, as detailed by Nicolaides, could be:

• Graduate employment rate
• Enrolment growth (both domestic and international)
• Graduate skills and competencies
• Sponsored research revenue

Each school will have uniquely weighted metrics, since each institution has unique requirements and capabilities.

“A university’s highest weighting may be on achieving targets related to medical research, whereas a college’s heaviest weighting may be on growing the number of domestic students,” said Nicolaides. “This means institutions will not compete against each other, for taxpayer dollars. Rather, they will compete against themselves and seek to improve their own performance against a series of targets.”

By not meeting the set-out targets, institutions would lose the percentage they were short of their goal. Meaning, if the school reaches 90 per cent of it’s target, it will only receive 90 per cent of the allocated funds.

This announcement comes on the back of Nicolaides’ letter to a number of post-secondary schools in the province last week, saying that government spending on colleges and universities was overblown and needed to be reigned in. Nicolaides claimed that funding rose by 106 per cent over the last decade, while enrollment has only grown by 21 per cent.

With that, he recommended the 21 largest post-secondary institutions in the province freeze spending on travel and hosting, as well as freeze hiring.

Nicolaides says this new model is being used in 35 U.S. states, as well as some European countries, and Hong Kong.

He says the government will be consulting with each of Alberta’s 26 post-secondary schools, including GPRC, to set up performance measures for each institution before the April 1 rollout.