Canadian universities are being repurposed through performance-based funding: Spooner

Universities in Canada are being repurposed by governments that are focused on performance-based funding, writes University of Regina Professor Marc Spooner. Spooner argues that performance-based funding creates situations where governments are guessing at what education will be valuable in the future while inhibiting students’ ability to choose their areas of study. The author says this kind of funding additionally incentivizes institutions to focus on accepting students who are most likely to be “successful,” which further marginalizing racialized Canadians who are hired less frequently and at a lower rate of pay. “Universities must continue to be valued and upheld for their core mission, which is to be much more than mere entrepreneurial training centres to be patted on the back for performing short-sighted corporate-styled research and worker development,” writes Spooner. University Affairs Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.