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MINISTER OF EDUCATION,

JACK HEINRICH

College & Institute Funding 1985/86

SPEAKING NOTES:

 

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| am pleased to meet with you today to
announce the funding for the 1985/86 |
fiscal year. The meeting | had with |
Board Chairmen this past February 21st |
was excellent and many consiructive comments
on such issues as multi-campus, equipment |
and relative shares of funding going into |
the Lower Mainland and Interior are
reflected in the allocation decisions |
am about to announce. The Throne Speech
contained reference to an intention to
strengthen vocational and technical
education. This will also be reflected in
the allocations.

The past two to three years have been
difficult ones for the College and
Institute system and there has been an
excellent response to the challenges of
increasing productivity and providing
high quality services. The period of
restraint has achieved its goals and now
we are on the threshold of a period of
development and growth.

The Government holds the College and
Institute system in very high esteem,

an esteem which the system has earned
through the provision of excellent quali-
ty, highly relevant educational services
that have presented excellent opportuni-
ties for the people of British Columbia
to develop and enhance their capabilities |
to act as citizens and participants in |
the economy.

The estimates contain the same level of
funding for 1985/86 as was available
last year. However, it is divided into
two parts--the first is a base fund of
95% of the last year's budget, and the
second part is an adjustment program of
$12,679,000. These latter funds are
being divided into four components which
| will discuss.

 

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First, the productivity increase target

for 1985/86 was earlier announced to be

a 5% increase, that is the same level of
service was expected although only 95% of
the funds would be provided. It is
recognized that in some institutions this
target was not achievable without some
sacrifices in quality or due to facilities
constraints. Therefore, the productivity
target is being lowered to 4%, meaning
that each institution will be expected to
achieve the same level of service as in
the prior year with 96% of the prior year's
budget. The cost of this decision is

$2.4 million.

Secondly, the funding formula, which has
been strongly supported in its first year
of operation is working well. However, it
was found that the formula did not make
adequate provision for the operation of
some satellite centres of interior colleges.
Therefore, the decision was taken to pro-
vide some specific grants beyond the
formula to ensure that the satellite cen-
tres continue to operate. A commitment
was made that the Joint Committee that
developed the formula would review the
matter of support of satellite centres
with a view to amending the formula in
order that reasonable provision be made
within it for funding these centres in
1986/87 and beyond. The cost of these
grants if $1.4 million.

The third component of the adjustment
program is a renewal fund. Substantial
productivity increases have been achieved.
However, in many instances further in-
creases are not possible due to constraints
in facilities or equipment.

Also in reviewing program offerings across
the system there are instances of programs f
which once were highly relevant in pre-
paring people for work that are no longer

a high priority--yet funds are being used
+o support those programs and are there-
for not available to support new programs
of high priority. There is a need for

some program adustment which might wel!
involved the phasing out of lower priority§
programs and implementation of new high