Carleton’s vice-president (finance) Duncan Watt gave an update on the university’s financial position, goals, challenges, and steps that will be taken in the coming year at a town hall in Fenn Lounge Dec. 3.
The update stated there will be a three per cent increase in tuition for the 2014-15 academic year.
The university’s income and expenses were discussed. Although expenses are not expected to change, barring some major alteration to the way the government funds universities, income can be highly variable.
“Students pay tuition fees, which are just over 50 per cent of our income now, and then the other 43 per cent of our income comes from government grants,” Watt said.
There are different grants for different types of students, he went on to say, with graduate and post-graduate students generating higher grants than undergraduate students.
Currently the school is near maximum capacity for graduate students, making undergraduate enrolment a weighty factor in yearly income, Watt said.
A one per cent increase in first-year enrolment per year is forecasted, according to Watt.
It is difficult to increase the number of undergraduate students because of the shrinking pool of students coming out of high school, he said.
“For us to increase our first-year enrolment by one or two per cent we would have to grow our market share. We have been successful in doing that for the last few years,” Watt said.
It is the “slow, steady growth in undergraduate enrolment” that has allowed Carleton to remain competitive, according to Watt.
“We don’t have a lot of control over the revenue of the university. The government can decide what we can charge for tuition fees and they decide what the government grant is going to be,” he said.
It was also mentioned that the future financial situation of the university could vary widely based on the outcome of provincial elections.
“I think the three parties in play all have very different plans for dealing with the financial situation,” Watt said.
