The University of Ottawa’s (U of O) plan to cut access to thousands of academic journals is a bad decision for students who rely on a variety of research materials.
U of O has stated that the cuts will help make up for a budget shortfall of over $1.5 million.
There are other solutions to this issue that do not directly impact the students who pay the university money not only to learn, but to also have access to an adequate selection of academic resources. It is unjust to punish students and researchers by limiting research materials because of a budget issue, as quality of education should be a university’s number one priority.
One can make the argument that cutting some journal subscriptions would not be a big problem, especially since there are probably many journals most students do not access. However, according to a professor who started a petition to protest the journal cuts, the U of O is cutting access to two major journal publishers, which would have a significant impact on available research materials.
A few other universities announced earlier this year they planned on making cuts to their journal subscriptions, including Memorial University. Carleton University also planned to cut $250,000 worth of academic journals from the library for the 2016-17 budget, but thankfully the university did not go through with the plan.
Hopefully, universities continue to maintain their journal collections and consider the impact cuts can potentially have on students, both graduate and undergraduate.
