Quebec university leaders launch ad campaign on inadequate PSE funding

Quebec’s university rectors have come together to launch an advertising campaign that highlights government underfunding to the sector, reports the Montreal Gazette. The campaign includes full-page ads in newspapers that say the lack of funding is “the critical issue no one is talking about.” The campaign also points to the fact that QC universities have an average of $5,000 less per year per student to spend than universities in other provinces; the average per student in the rest of Canada is $15,798, while it is $10,844 in QC. Université de Montréal Rector Guy Breton says the campaign cost less than $40,000. Breton believes that the backlash caused by the former Liberal government’s plan to increase tuition has people scared to return to talking about university funding. “But it’s not because something is dangerous that you should not address it,” Breton says. McGill University Principal Suzanne Fortier says the $1.8 billion the PQ government has pledged to reinvest in higher education by 2020 would only close “about half of the gap” between funding in QC and most other provinces. Montreal Gazette