The Federation of New Brunswick Faculty Associations calls for adequate and sustained investment in public universities
(Fredericton, NB, October 1, 2024) “During this provincial election, New Brunswick citizens are invited to join the Federation of New Brunswick Faculty Associations (FNBFA) in demanding strong public universities—an investment in New Brunswick’s future,” declares Jean Sauvageau, President.
“The next government must commit to sustained and adequate investments that will enable public universities to fulfill their mandates,” asserts the FNBFA President, Jean Sauvageau.
The FNBFA President points out that post-secondary education is the responsibility of provincial governments, and that unfortunately, over the past few decades, there has been a steady erosion of public funding for post-secondary education. He cites the example of New Brunswick, where public funding of the university operating budget has fallen from 82% in 1979-1980 to 56% in 2019-2020.
Students and their families now have to spend large sums of money in order to attend university for four years. President Sauvageau says, “The direct consequences of this situation are that students often have to work several hours a week to pay their tuition fees, which has a negative impact on their ability to devote themselves fully to their studies and succeed to the best of their ability. Otherwise, students are forced to take on so much debt that the negative repercussions of this debt will be felt throughout their lives.”
Now that New Brunswick is in the midst of an election campaign, the FNBFA president concludes by pointing out to the province’s population that “the time has come for the next provincial government, whoever it may be, to invest adequately in public universities. Investing in public universities is investing in the future of the province and its people.”
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About the FNBFA
The Federation of New Brunswick Faculty Associations represents the interests of approximately 1,500 professors, contract academic staff, librarians, and researchers at six campuses of the province’s four public universities. It advocates the advancement of their profession, the protection of the institutional autonomy of universities and academic freedom and aims to improve the quality of post-secondary education and research in the province.
