Higher university subsidies don’t always result in a more educated population, a new study by a Canadian think tank has found.
The governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan consistently spend the most on their universities, yet rank 10th and eighth respectively when it comes to “educational attainment” of a Bachelor’s degree or above, a newly released study by the Fraser Institute revealed.
Ontario, which gave the least amount of money to universities, ranked first with just shy of 30 percent of the population having a Bachelor’s degree or higher. That is almost double Newfoundland’s 16.6 percent and well above Sakatchewan’s 20.5 percent.
“If there was a positive relationship between higher university spending by provincial governments and an increase in educated populations, we would observe the results in places like Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan where the most is spent on universities,” report co-author Alex Whalen, associate director of Atlantic Canada Prosperity at the Fraser Institute, said in a Jan. 3 press release.
New Brunswick, the fourth biggest spender, and Prince Edward Island, the fifth largest, also ranked low in educational attainment, coming in at ninth and seventh respectively. In New Brunswick, 19 percent of the population have a Bachelor’s degree or higher while P.E.I. came in at 22 percent.
Like Ontario, British Columbia contributes less to its universities yet has higher educational attainment. B.C. ranks eighth for spending and second for education with 28.6 percent of the population having undergraduate degrees or higher.
Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Manitoba ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth for educational attainment and ninth, seventh, and sixth respectively in spending. The report found that 24.3 percent of Nova Scotia’s population had achieved higher-ranking degrees, while Quebec’s and Manitoba’s populations came in at 23.5 percent and 22.9 percent respectively.
Alberta appears to be the exception to the rule, being the third highest in spending, but also ranking third for degree attainment at 25.6 percent.
During the 2021-2022 school year, the latest year for available data, Canadian universities educated more than 1 million full-time and 250,000 part-time students at a cost of more than $46 billion, according to the report.
While funding comes from a variety of sources, the single largest source remains provincial governments.
The Migration Factor
One explanation for the wide variance between funding and degree attainment is interprovincial migration, the study suggested.University students could be educated and paid for in one province and then move to another after graduation “effectively transferring the provincial investment with them,” the study said.
“For any given province, substantial migration to another province represents a financial loss for the province when recent university graduates leave after completing their studies; a situation we’re all too familiar with in Atlantic Canada,” Mr. Whalen said.
The study pointed out that migration applies to all provinces, not just high-spending ones.
“Even a province with average spending levels could experience a financial loss if it also records high levels of (net) out-migration,” the study said.
The provinces receiving the highest amount of interprovincial immigration between 2000 and 2020 were Alberta, at an average of 1.4 percent per year, followed by British Columbia, at 0.3 percent annually.
The lowest-ranking provinces for interprovincial immigration were New Brunswick, at -1.1 percent, Prince Edward Island, at -1.7 percent, and Newfoundland & Labrador, at -1.9 percent. Other provinces which also had a higher outflow than inflow of graduates were Saskatchewan at -1 percent and Nova Scotia and Manitoba, each at -0.8 percent.
Ontario, at -0.1 percent, and Quebec at -0.2 percent were essentially flat.
