Science and Research committee  I'm going to go back to the quota concept again. I think quotas would restore balance to granting scholarships. I think that the funding situation in terms of francophone versus anglophone universities is improving. For several years now, francophone universities have managed to obtain a slightly larger share of the available funding.

Science and Research committee  Unfortunately, I don't have any data on that. I know that graduation rates can vary quite a bit from institution to institution. For example, the INRS has a great graduation rate even though we're a small university. I don't have data on the comparative graduation rates of the 15 universities.

Science and Research committee  Is it over? I'm sorry. Do I have time to answer the question, Mr. Chair? I'm being told that I can. As I was saying, the administrators of smaller universities have trouble meeting the requirements of the very large programs sponsored by the federal government because they lack sufficient administrative resources.

Science and Research committee  In my opinion, the research evaluation system established in Canada is certainly of high quality, although there is room for improvement. Data from the Alliance of Canadian Comprehensive Research Universities, the ACCRU, illustrating the concentration of federal funding in a few universities, point to the probability of systemic bias.

Science and Research committee  In fact, we are proposing to review this distribution and to calculate scholarship quotas not based on amounts obtained in previous scholarship competitions, but based on student population. As we've seen, the student population outside urban centres and large universities could be under-represented from a scholarship allocation standpoint.

Science and Research committee  Moving forward, the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies proposes that scholarships be distributed on the basis of quotas calculated according to student population. We think that this would be a fairer way of distributing scholarships among Canadian universities. We also believe that it would focus scholarship distribution on academic merit.

Science and Research committee  That's why we want to use student population as the basis for assigning scholarship quotas. I was saying that scholarships are awarded on merit, but I should point out that Canadian universities are doing this already when they manage the master's scholarship quota, or the Canada graduate scholarships quota.

Science and Research committee  The quota would be calculated over the student population, from one university to another.

Science and Research committee  First, graduate scholarship distribution would be more equitable if it were based on student numbers. Quotas would be calculated according to the student population. Second, promoting mobility in Canada would give all Canadians the chance to pursue a scholarship experience and incorporate a mobility component into their curriculum.

Science and Research committee  Yes, I agree. We underscored in our presentation that smaller universities are indeed experiencing specific difficulties, primarily because of their administrative capacity to respond to calls for projects and major competitions. The smaller universities do not have specialized personnel for every competition, in all programs or in all fields.

Science and Research committee  It's not a yes or no. I would just say that—

Science and Research committee  In closing, the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies and many other stakeholders in higher education in Canada believe that a more equitable model for distributing federal research funding would better serve the interests of our universities, their students, Canada's research community and Canadian society at large.

Science and Research committee  Thank you and good morning. As you know, my name is Philippe-Edwin Bélanger. I am the director of graduate studies and student success at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique in Quebec City.

Science and Research committee  We are pleased to address the committee today in our capacity as president and vice-president of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, CAGS, Canada's national association for the advancement of excellence in graduate education, research and scholarship. CAGS remains firm in its support for increasing the size and number of graduate student and post-doctoral scholarships provided by the three federal granting agencies.

Science and Research committee  The current funding model also poses major challenges for small and medium-sized universities that may not have the administrative staff and expertise required to apply for and obtain federal funding under demanding and extremely competitive competitions. When the time comes for the federal government to plan its research investments, we think it would be a good opportunity to reconsider and redefine the federal funding distribution model to make it more institutionally and regionally balanced, yet still based on academic merit.