Graduate funding cuts for next school year

Prospective graduate students at Memorial will bear the burden of budgetary cuts this coming fall semester. Projections state that the graduate school will see a shortfall of about $2-million in operating funds, according to a news release on today@mun.ca Noreen Golfman, dean of graduate studies, says that this is not in any way a funding freeze. According to Golfman, it’s a temporary hold on fellowship money for the School of Graduate Studies.

“We are doing this in order to make sure that we don’t get into a deeper deficit, and that all departments and academic programs can manage their budgets more efficiently in the future. We know that this change is temporary,” said Golfman. The shortage in funding is reported to be a direct result of the school trying to provide fellowships that are competitive with those provided by other universities on both the national and international scale. Although the graduate school is experiencing marked growth, Golfman indicated in a press release that the budget cuts will most likely inhibit this expansion, at least temporarily.

“This is a moment where there are a lot of sensitivities,” said Golfman. “The message is out there, and no matter how clear my memos are, these things seem to get exaggerated. I don’t want people to get discouraged. This is not the end of the world, and it is not the termination of graduate studies in some absolute sense. It is a really fluid situation.” Specifically, there will be a 10 per cent decrease in funding for graduate academic units in the 2010-11 school year. There will also be significant cuts in the entrance scholarship program for the School of Graduate Studies.

According to Golfman, however, in terms of the bigger picture, this is not a reason for panic. “We have doubled [the number of students enrolled in the graduate program] and are moving toward our target goal. We have grown much faster than anyone could have expected.”

Golfman says that the School of Graduate Studies is recovering from years under a “very old” funding model with rates that were far too low to support the necessary program development and increasing enrolment. “The fact is that we have been working from year to year for the last three years, thinking and hoping that we were going to get money and we didn’t.” Golfman certainly does not want to incur panic among prospective graduate students, and she certainly does not want to discourage anyone from choosing Memorial. “This is absolutely not shutting the door,” she said. “We are evaluating and monitoring the situation day by day.”

With files from Kenny Sharpe

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