Fund the Future Campaign

Fund the Future is a campaign to address the steady decline in government funding to post-secondary education institutions over the last decade. Our goal is to have the provincial government re-evaluate the formula that is used to determine TRU’s funding level in order to better reflect how our university has grown over the last decade.

Last year TRU was funded $2,000 less per full-time student than any other research university in British Columbia, and the funding situations has been getting worse for some time. TRU now operates on a Provincial Operating Grant that is actually $3,000 less per student than the grant TRU received as a college in 2004-2005. Over the last five years alone TRU has been underfunded by over $50 million compared to the average institution in BC. This directly impacts the quality of programs and services available to us as students.

So, how does funding actually work?

The Provincial Government provides post-secondary institutions with an operating grant each year based on the number of full-time equivalent students (FTE students) enrolled at that institution multiplied by the amount of funding that the government gives per student.

Underfunding at TRU means that the provincial government pays for only 46% of TRU’s budget while students pay 44% in tuition fees. At other institutions such as UNBC the government pays for 63% of the budget and students only make up 23% of the budget through tuition fees. This means that students and their families are paying the price for underfunding at TRU through increased tuition fees and reduced quality of education.

This funding burden cannot keep getting pushed onto the backs of students and their families. It’s time for change. Your elected student representatives will be out on campus this fall asking for your signature in support of re-evaluating TRU’s funding formula. Let’s work together to make sure our education is accessible and high quality!

To see a more detailed breakdown of TRU’s funding level compared to institutions across the province, as well as our funding level compared to other institutions with similar mandates, check out the graphs below.

Have more questions about the Fund the Future campaign? Email us at campaigns@trusu.ca!