Abstract:

University finances in Quebec are mainly publically funded and the way the funds are allocated influence their development. Some group are now conceiving that “funding formulas are the most powerful instruments available to government to steer system change and institutional behavior” (Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario). In fact, universities have always been pressured by religious and state influences but public influences in Canada and Quebec as never been as influencing university development as today. Funding formulas are getting now more efficient and precise.

In Canada, Polster (2003) already showed the Federal influence in the development of Canadian's universities through Canada Research Chair program. This influence is now reinforced in an extreme way in research with Canada First Research Excellence Fund and it is not the only one. At the Provincial (State) level, we are now facing the same kind of deep influence regarding not only research but also teaching.

The aim of this presentation is to illustrate the most recent transformations that occurred in Québec (Canada) universities regarding funding formulas and their effects on Québec's universities development. These recent transformations started with a main modification of the funding formulas revised in 2005-2006 and applied after this date by the Government of Québec. The main effect of these changes is to increase the differentiation between universities (there is 18 operating universities in Québec) and university professors. The presentation will show how these effects are structured and influencing the development of Québec's universities over the last 10 years.

Keywords:

University policy, Public Policy, University finances, University, Educational management.