UNBC to funders: we’re capable, we just need the tools

When that equipment is missing, students and researchers end up covering the cost.

“If we don’t have a microscope we need here, and we have to travel to UBC, we’re paying for the travel to use that equipment,” Gray said. “And then we don’t have the equipment here to provide those training opportunities.”

Gray says master’s students need hands-on access to good equipment. She explains that this training helps them start their careers or continue research in other parts of Canada.

She makes it clear that UNBC is not asking for special treatment.

“It’s not to say that we want handouts. The quality of the work has to be excellent,” Gray said. “But there’s value in diversifying how that funding is distributed across the country, to ensure we have a diversity of perspectives in our research culture.”

Gray says one of her main jobs is making sure national funders remember UNBC. She wants small and medium-sized universities to be considered when funding is distributed. UNBC’s message to funders is clear: the university can do excellent research, but it needs the funding to make it happen.

“Our origins here were to be in the North, to serve the North, to give that university experience to our communities,” Gray said.

Sheldon Clare, the MLA for Prince George–North Cariboo and a member of the Conservative Party of B.C., says the problem goes beyond just one campus. “There does seem to be an urban-rural divide on how funding is allocated in the post-secondary system,” Clare said.

Clare says northern schools, including UNBC, do not have the same access to equipment as urban universities. He explains that some funding depends on endowments and gifts, which makes planning difficult. He also mentions how student spaces are counted using a measure called full-time equivalent.

“If you can find anyone who can actually explain what a full-time equivalency is, you’ll probably be a very, very popular person, because it means different things to different groups within the system,” Clare said.

He says budgeting is an even bigger challenge.

“When you’re trying to budget, it’s pretty hard to budget off of gifts,” Clare said. “You really need some steady understanding of where your funding is coming from.”

He says the province needs to fix how funding is distributed.

“It’s beholden on the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education to make sure these funding models are clear, they’re understood, and they can be reliably planned upon by administrators and faculty,” Clare said.

For UNBC, the goal is steady, fair funding it can rely on. Gray says the university was built to serve the North, and it wants to keep that promise close to home.

by Dave Branco

UNBC to funders: we’re capable, we just need the tools

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