UPEI balances difficult budget while maintaining core programs

With a difficult financial landscape facing institutions and organizations across Prince Edward Island, the UPEI Board of Governors was pleased to approve a balanced operating budget for 2012-13 at its May 8 meeting.

The University addressed its budget with a goal of minimizing the impact on students during these fiscally challenging times. The 'bare bones' budget is based on specific enrolment projections, conservative assumptions for expenditure growth, and budget reductions across campus. An increase in student tuition was limited to $20 per credit course-a 4 per cent increase-similar to the average tuition increase over the past 10 years at the Island's only university. Tuition at UPEI remains highly competitive.

President Alaa Abd-El-Aziz admits that he faced hard decisions with his budget team, 'This has been a challenging first year as president. However, despite budget reductions, pension issues, and five collective bargaining processes underway, it is critical that we were able to maintain our focus on students and employ an open, thoughtful approach to address these challenges, ensuring that we did not burden students with a large tuition increase.'

UPEI was able to sustain its high quality programs and limit increased costs to students despite receiving a recent 3 per cent cut in its operating grant from the provincial government. Interim Vice-President Administration and Finance Phil Hooper said, 'As a result of long-term fiscal prudency and unprecedented recent enrolments, the University entered the budget process with the ability-this year-to mitigate some level of financial challenges. However, dealing with a funding cut of $1.3 million from government, coupled with normal inflationary growth of 4-6% on the expenditure side, did create significant challenges in balancing the budget.'

Abd-El-Aziz indicated that further adjustments might be necessary during the year if the University doesn't achieve projected revenue targets or if core expenditures grow more than expected.

UPEI Student Union President Kate VanGerven acknowledged that the University faced a difficult predicament. 'While a tuition increase is always tough, given what has been taking place across the country at other post-secondary institutions, we could have been presented with a much worse scenario. I congratulate the UPEI administration for including students in the budget process and for consistently keeping our best interests at the forefront of their deliberations.'