Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about graduate student priorities for Budget 2010.
The National Graduate Caucus is Canada's largest graduate students organization, representing more than 70,000 graduate students from more than 30 campuses across the country. We see the investment in graduate students and their research as an essential investment in the future needs of the Canadian economy. Graduate students are the drivers of long-term innovation through their research, and they also go on to become the high-skilled, highly qualified workforce required in the knowledge economy.
There have been modest improvements in graduate student funding in recent federal budgets. However, these increases have still not made up for the cuts to the granting councils that occurred in the 1990s. Also, the latest increases in funding to the Canada graduate scholarships program were geared towards specific areas of private industry, a policy that limits long-term innovation. The short-term increase in the number of scholarships distributed under the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council was also directed only towards business-related degrees. Canada's research community responded negatively, as the move undermined the independence of the council and internationally recognized peer review standards within academia.
This short-sighted research policy only undermines Canada's world-class research community and damages Canada's international reputation. According to the recent studies carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada is falling far behind other industrialized countries in the area of private sector research and development in innovation. The use of public tax resources to subsidize private-sector-driven commercialization projects in universities negatively affects incentives for the private sector to invest in in-house research and development.
The policy also reduces the job opportunities for graduate students after they graduate. Public sector funding for university research is essential to reverse this trend. Today, graduate students are also facing increased challenges. Graduate studies have expanded 37% in the last decade as the demand for workers with advanced degrees has grown, with a shift to a more knowledge-based economy. Despite the growth, there has not been an adequate increase in the funding for graduate studies.
This reduces not only the affordability of graduate school but also the quality of research. Graduate students incur increased debt loads during their programs and face a faster rise in tuition fees than undergraduate students. A Statistics Canada report released earlier this year showed that PhD graduates can only look forward to an increase in their pay of an average of $4,000 over that of masters students, even though they have studied, have done research, and have paid tuition fees for an extra five years of university.
Basic curiosity-driven research that graduate students carry out is the foundation for the future economy and it establishes the long-term innovation possibilities for enterprises. The United States, European countries, and growing economies such as China and India have invested much more heavily in university research in response to the global recession. Canada has been ranked by an international panel to have one of the most efficient and effective discovery grants programs in the world in producing innovation and top-tier research. However, investment by the federal government in the councils that fund university research was cut by up to $148 million over three years in the previous budget. Our recommendation, then, is to restore the $148 million to the granting councils and to increase in both proportion and amount that funding to go to basic research by graduate students. We recommend that this money be asymmetrically allocated through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to make up for a historical underfunding of these programs.
Our second recommendation has to do with the increase in the number of graduate students who receive direct funding for their studies. Since 2006, the federal government has provided little in the way of upfront grants to graduate students. The 2008 budget increase in the number of graduate scholarships did not reflect enrolment in graduate studies. Only 15% of new scholarships went to graduate students studying social sciences, humanities, and arts, which is where approximately 50% of graduate students study. The 2009 budget continued this trend, with only a $17 million increase of the $88 million invested going to SSHRC and all of that $17 million going to business-related degrees. This excluded well over 90% of graduate students in the social sciences, humanities, and arts. The recommendation is to double the number of Canada graduate scholarships and proportionally distribute those grants according to enrolment.
I'll end my presentation here. I look forward to providing more in-depth information during the question period. Thank you for the opportunity of speaking with you.