Students welcome new $350M federal grant program; Federal budget also finds funds for research, but UW president says 'quantum leap' is still needed
BYLINE: BARBARA AGGERHOLM, RECORD STAFF
DATELINE: WATERLOO REGION
Loan-burdened students are breathing easier knowing that a new federal grant program will help them pay for a post-secondary education.
"It's exciting because this is replacing the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation," said Kevin Royal, president of the Federation of Students at University of Waterloo.
Up to yesterday, "we didn't know whether that money would stay in the system because the . . . . endowment was running out of money."
Royal said students continue to graduate with "huge" debt.
"The average student graduating with debt will have about $24,000 in debt for an undergraduate education," he said.
"So we're happy that the money stayed in the system, but we're still looking to see more, of course."
In yesterday's federal budget, the government announced a new $350-million Canada Student Grant Program which replaces the millennium scholarships set up by the Liberals a decade ago.
That money is to rise to $430 million by 2012-13.
An estimated quarter-million students will be able to use the program in 2009-10 -- more than 100,000 more students than are helped now, Ottawa says.
Students are also happy that the government plans to streamline its Canada Student Loans Program, Royal said.
Meanwhile, university presidents welcomed research money that will help "Canada's continued prosperity."
But as Canada races to compete with other countries, it's not enough, said UW president David Johnston.
Even smaller countries like Finland, Switzerland and Norway devote more of their gross domestic product to research.
Johnston said he is "moderately pleased" with a federal budget that moves forward in three areas: student support, graduate student assistance and research.
But Canada needs to make a "quantum leap" in its research investment to help "build a more prosperous and more civilized society," he said.
"What we're seeing today is some important steps, but not a quantum leap."
Canada's colleges, meanwhile, would have liked to have seen "even some small step" toward supporting their applied research, said Conestoga College president John Tibbits.
Applied research "can lead to short-term improvements in productivity" for small and mid-sized companies which are the backbone of Waterloo Region's economic growth, Tibbits said.
Colleges didn't have high expectations, but "I would have liked to have seen . . . more reference to skills."
Johnston, Tibbits and Wilfrid Laurier University president Max Blouw joined students in welcoming the new student grant program.
"I'm delighted that graduate student support and student support in general are in the budget in a good way," Blouw said.
Laurier has had "a huge jump in graduate students -- a 42-per cent increase in full-time and almost a 300-per-cent increase in part-time in five years, and getting support for those students is really critical," Blouw said.
On the research front, Johnston said the Canada research and innovation fund of $440 million over five years, which will be administered by the three granting councils, is the most significant development.
"Is that important? Yes. Is it enough? No, but one is happy to see positive movement."
And UW will compete to access money from automotive and clean energy research funds.
The $250-million Automotive Innovation Fund "builds very substantially on the auto research we do," Johnston said.
"We have the largest collection of professors working in auto-related fields, particularly some of the advanced areas like cleaner fuels, like electronic sensors, like lighter-weight materials, like robotics."
Johnston said $21 million to set up Canada Global Excellence Research Chairs is welcome, but the money will go quickly.
Among other education measures, a new doctoral scholarship program, named after former governor general Georges Vanier, will be worth about $25 million over five years.