Performance Based Funding and Manitoba’s Universities: a MOFA webinar featuring Dr. Marc Spooner
Across Canada, we are hearing more and more about performance based funding (PBF), a new tactic by governments to change how our universities operate and are funded. In Manitoba, the Pallister and Stefanson governments have signaled that they intend to follow a number of other jurisdictions in implementing PBF. PBF often links public funding of our universities with graduation rates and post-graduation earnings. However, there are detrimental impacts of this policy, including restricting access to post-secondary education for marginalized populations.
How will PBF affect Manitoba and what can we learn from other jurisdictions? MOFA has organized two virtual seminars with University of Regina professor Dr. Marc Spooner, an expert on the failures of PBF. The first seminar will focus on the effects of PBF on smaller and rural institutions, while the second one will speak to the bigger picture in Manitoba. The seminars will be of particular interest to MOFA members, but members of the public and the university community are also able to register free of charge. Registration information is available below.
Seminar 1: How will performance-based funding affect smaller institutions?
March 23rd, 7:00pm (event will open at 6:30pm)
Co-hosted by MOFA representative Dr. Allison McCulloch, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brandon University
Seminar 2: What will performance-based funding mean for Manitoba and what lessons can we learn?
March 24th, 7:00pm (event will open at 6:30pm)
Co-hosted by MOFA President, Dr. Scott Forbes, Professor of Biology, University of Winnipeg
About our speaker: Marc Spooner is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. He specializes in qualitative research at the intersections of theory and action on the ground. His interests include audit culture, academic freedom, and the effects of neoliberalization and corporatization on higher education; as well as social justice, activism, and participatory democracy. He has published in many venues, including peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, government reports, a wide variety of popularizations, and is the co-editor of the award winning book Dissident Knowledge in Higher Education. He can be followed on Twitter: @drmarcspooner
To register for either of the two events, please register below or email zach@mofa-fapum.mb.ca. A Zoom link will be sent out to participants in advance of the event.
For a primer on PBF: COVID-19 reveals the folly of performance-based funding for universities