Ottawa — The Harper government is putting its imprint on higher education, pulling the plug on a foundation closely associated with former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and establishing a new, marquee graduate scholarship program aimed at attracting young academic superstars to Canadian campuses.
The new graduate program, named after former Governor General Georges Vanier and outlined in yesterday's budget, will give 500 PhD students from Canada and abroad $50,000 annually for up to three years. It will be funded initially with a $25-million investment over two years.
University leaders increasingly have lamented that they are being out-gunned financially in their quest for top young scholars by U.S. schools, as well as those from Australia and Britain and emerging education heavy weights such as Singapore. The new program is designed as an antidote to that, and as a way to signal the government's commitment to the sector with an easily recognizable program that it hopes will one day rival other well-established scholarships such as the Fulbright and the Rhodes on the world stage.
As well, the government will give up to $6,000 annually to 250 Canadian graduate students to help them study abroad for one semester. Both programs will be administered by the government's three granting councils.
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For more established scholars, 20 new Canada Global Excellence Research Chairs will be established with an initial $21-million investment. Each chair will give $10-million over seven years to support research in the environment, natural resources, energy, health and information and communication technologies and are linked to the government's efforts to increase the country's competitiveness. .
At the undergraduate level, the federal budget includes a revamping of student assistance that will mean the end of the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation. The foundation, created by the Liberal government a decade ago with a $2.5-billion endowment, runs out of cash next summer. The Tories have chosen not to direct more money to the Montreal-based organization, and are replacing it with a new, centralized system of grants that will hand out monthly $250 cheques to low-income students who qualify for federal government loans. Eligible middle-income students will get $100 for each month they are in school.
The move to new monthly payments approved at the beginning of a school year was characterized by the government as a more effective way of encouraging students to go on to college and university because of its predictability. The grants are expected to reach 245,000 students in their first year, an increase of 100,000 students from current levels, although individual awards — of $2,000 or $800 annually for a typical student who goes to school in 8 months of the year - will be lower than existing levels, government officials indicated.
The new grants will be funded with a $350-million investment when they kick in next year, rising to $400-million in 2010 and $430-million in 2012.
The budget also includes a promise to modernize the federal student loan program with $123-million over four years to expand online access, increase assistance for those who have difficulty with repayment and lower the expected contributions from spouses - an acknowledgement of the changing demographic makeup of the student population.
What the budget does not contain is any break on interest rates — an oversight that is likely to raise the ire of student groups who have been clamouring for relief.
The budget includes a sprinkling of other education initiatives, including an increase in the time limits and contribution levels for registered education savings plans.
Universities also will see an increase of $15-million for the indirect cost of research and the government's three granting councils will see a $80-million increase in funding,
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