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Montreal, March 1, 2011 – As part of Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand’s pre-budget consultations, the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities (CREPUQ) has submitted a brief restating the proposals it presented at the Rencontre des partenaires en éducation on December 6, 2010.

Issues pertaining to education are of capital importance to the future of Quebec, as Premier Charest indicated recently in his opening speech to the National Assembly. If Quebec hopes to become an innovative society, then all socio-economic players must contribute to promote attendance and graduation at every level of the school system.

“Of all the major sectors in which government is involved, education contributes most to the creation of wealth and our collective well-being. A better educated population is a healthier population. What’s more, the most educated societies are among the wealthiest ones, and they have more means to offer high-quality public services. We therefore believe that all must join forces to support the university system: society (through government subsidies), students (through tuition fees) and the private sector (through philanthropic and other means),” said Denis Brière, Chair of the CREPUQ Board of Directors and Rector of Université Laval.

Our universities have accomplished great things in the last 50 years and Quebec would not be what it is without the extraordinary contribution of universities to its economic, social and cultural development. However, past performance no longer guarantees the future. Clouds are gathering and a growing number of indicators all point to the same thing: the status quo is simply no longer viable. While our university rectors and principals do not wish to sound alarmist, they are nonetheless calling upon government and, by extension, society as a whole, to examine the difficulties facing our universities, particularly the serious danger that the quality of the education we offer and the competitiveness of our research may be compromised.

“The chronic underfinancing that has plagued our universities for a number of years can no longer be ignored. The situation is urgent and must be corrected immediately so as not to jeopardize the remarkable progress that Quebec has made thanks, in part, to its university system. CREPUQ therefore invites the Minister of Finance to include, in his next Budget Speech, the series of measures he proposes to address university underfunding, so that we do not have to continue debating the issue year after year. The government must act boldly and present an all-encompassing solution to ensure that our universities can continue contributing to Quebec’s economic, social and cultural development,” added Daniel Zizian, President and Director General of CREPUQ.

The brief presented at the 2011 pre-budget consultations is available at the CREPUQ website: http://www.crepuq.qc.ca/spip.php?article1299&lang=fr.

CREPUQ includes all 18 Quebec universities. The organization acts as their voice in relations with government and milieus concerned with university education and research. It also fosters coordination and collaboration between universities, is a research centre for university administrations, acts as a centre for coordination and joint service delivery, and is a resource centre and think tank for its members.

Source :
Chantal Pouliot, Director of Communications
Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities
514 288-8524, ext. 244
chantal.pouliot@crepuq.qc.ca