It was hard to miss the front-page headline in today’s Globe and Mail: “Universities eye ‘painful’ cuts in wake of crisis.” The article states that universities “could be forced to cut student aid, scholarships and funding for various programs as early as next spring because of multimillion-dollar losses in their investment holdings.”
This is just the latest in a series of news reports speculating on how the current economic crisis might affect Canada’s universities. A recent article from the Victoria Times Colonist, for example, noted that the crisis was a prime topic of conversation at the annual meeting of university presidents when they met in Ottawa in October.
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada even took the somewhat unusual step of issuing a press release acknowledging these “uncertain times” and stating that the association is committed to working “with all levels of government, with private and not-for-profit sector partners and our local communities” to ensure “as rapid a return as possible to sustained growth in the Canadian economy.”
University World News also has a special report out yesterday on how the crisis is affecting universities worldwide.
