Significant faculty member retirement is anticipated in the next decade.4 To attend to a potential shortage, graduate studies will be key to generating qualified new faculty members.

Between the labour market shift towards knowledge-based industries and predicted faculty shortages, there will be a need for more than 80,000 graduates from masters and PhD programs each year by 2011. However, the number of graduate degrees awarded annually in Canada has not increased since the mid 1990s, remaining steady at around 40,000 graduates.5 Time-to-completion, graduate student funding, and faculty member renewal have been identified as major priorities by organisations such as the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies. The federal government has set goals to encourage and facilitate enrolment in graduate programs in order to foster university innovation and the dispersion of qualified researchers into the Canadian labour market. The Canadian Graduate Scholarships introduced in 2003 were a positive start to improving access to graduate studies. However, there are still large numbers of unfunded graduate students.

Furthermore, as tuition fees continue to soar in most graduate programs, the value of scholarships depreciates.

The federal government must restore transfer payments to the provinces to enable provincial governments and universities to reduce all tuition fees. Reducing fees for graduate students in the post- residency phase would improve access and reduce student debt.

Furthermore, post-residency fees would play an important role in improving retention and time-to-completion in Canadian graduate programmes.

Endnotes

1. Canadian Association for Graduate Studies. October 2003. The Completion of Graduate Studies in Canadian Universities: Report & recommendations; Pyke, S.W. and P.M. Sheridan. 1993. "Logistic Regression of Graduate Student Retention", The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Vol.23, No.2.

2. Bowlby, J.W. and K. McMullen. 2002. At A Crossroads: First results for the 18 to 20 year old cohort of the Youth in Transition Survey. Statistics Canada.

3. Statistics Canada. Sept. 1, 2005. "University tuition fees." The Daily.

4. Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. 2002. Canada's Universities: A strong foundation for innovation.

5. Berkowitz, Peggy. 2003. "The Long Haul" University Affairs. 8-12.

6. Canada's Innovation Strategy: http://innovation.gc.ca