Canadian universities have welcomed prime minister Justin Trudeau’s new federal budget announced on April 16, hailing funding boosts for academic research and graduate scholarships and greater support for student housing and mental healthcare.
The budget will provide grants of $1.8 billion to Canada’s three research funding agencies over five years and a $1.1bn investment in interest-free student loans for 2024/25.
“[The] budget includes badly needed support for students and leading-edge research,” said Gabriel Miller, president of Universities Canada.
“Research and development are a cornerstone of Canadian productivity and job growth. Our nation’s future economic well-being relies on our people, ideas and communities and universities are proud to play a leading role in all three of these areas.”
Leading higher education and research organisations warned the government last year that Canada risked falling behind other countries unless Ottawa took “immediate and significant action” to fund its science and research output.
In 2022, Canada spent 1.55% of GDP on research and development, which the coalition of organisations said was well behind the OECD average of 2.71%.
Researchers have praised the government for listening to the government’s advisory panel in last year’s Bouchard Report which called for a “major reinvestment to maintain Canada’s research and innovation ecosystem amid high inflation and mounting international competition”.
Other notable budget commitments include the $2bn earmarked for research infrastructure and AI computing capacity to drive technological innovation and address societal challenges.
“In [the] budget, the government has responded to the collective advocacy of researchers, students and innovators with a compelling vision for a more prosperous, resilient and dynamic Canada,” said Chad Gaffield, CEO of U15 group of Canadian research universities.
“By investing in Canadian research, they have confirmed their belief in science and the potential of Canada’s next generation to help build a successful future for us all.”
The budget allocates $825 million over five years to federal scholarships and fellowships, which U15 universities said was “long overdue”.
Despite significant inflation, the Canada graduate scholarship has not increased in 20 years, according to Alex Usher president of Higher Education Strategy Associates.
The targeted boost to federal scholarships means the next generation will have access to internationally competitive financial support, quelling fears of a “brain drain” of Canada’s most promising students, said U15 universities.
The budget has been coined the “Gen-Z budget” to win back the youth vote, allocating $500m over five years to improving student mental health care.
One of the biggest pillars of the budget is it commitment to ameliorating Canada’s housing crisis, which was one of the stated reasons for the international study visa cap announced in January 2024.
Changes to Canada’s financial assistance program will deliver more aid for rent to approximately 79,000 students each year at a cost of $154.6 million over five years, according to government estimates.
“The upside is more money in students’ pockets,” said Usher.
“The downside is that parts of this will be distributed in loans which will inevitably turn into higher levels of debt.”
“The upside is more money in students’ pockets. The downside is that parts of this will inevitably turn into higher levels of debt”
The long-term impacts of other budget reforms were called into question by Usher who said that much of the funding is contingent on the current Liberal government holding onto power in the next general election, expected in October 2025.
“Unfortunately, while the headline figure of $1.8bn new money for the granting councils sounds impressive, nearly all of it is backloaded well beyond the next election which means nearly all of it is speculative,” he said.
For Canada’s international students, the budget maintains the study permit cap and commits the government to roll out the new recognised institutions framework in 2025 rather than in 2026 as was previously stated.
The 2019 budget had set aside $148m for a five-year strategy increasing outbound student mobility due to conclude this year, though the new budget is focused on retaining Canadian talent and doesn’t provide any updates.
Update (April 18 14:30 GMT): a previous version of this article referred to Justin Trudeau as president of Canada. He is in fact the prime minister. We apologies for the error.
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