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On university funding, Quebec has much to learn from donors
This article was originally published in The Gazette.
Our alumni and supporters have never been more numerous or more generous, but our government isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.
Concordia University recently closed its most-successful fundraising campaign ever with a total of $365 million.
That’s after launching the Campaign for Concordia: Next-Gen Now in 2017 with a goal of $250 million, which was frankly a stretch target for a young university that had never previously raised more than $150 million.
The success of our campaign is a statement for and by our community. But we aren’t the only ones celebrating.
In February, Université Laval received a $20-million gift, the largest single donation in its history, from Québecor as part of the campaign for its Carrefour international Brian-Mulroney. Not so long ago, in 2022, the Université du Québec à Montréal closed a university-wide campaign with nearly $119 million.
Meanwhile, the Université de Montréal embarked on a $1-billion fundraising campaign last year. McGill recently extended its campaign and increased the goal from $2 billion to $3 billion. The Université de Sherbrooke is raising $250 million. The Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue has set its sights on bringing in $25 million.
It isn’t just the total dollar amounts that matter. Concordia’s campaign had 46,000 unique donors. One year, we raised more than $1.3 million from gifts of $250 or less.
The sheer breadth of support speaks to the pride that the global community of alumni and friends of Quebec universities takes in our mission, the belief in the value of our teaching and research, and the enthusiasm for our ambitions.
Such generosity demonstrates that people recognize the positive difference education makes in individual lives, in the communities that universities call home and in the world at large.
The news that so many campaigns across Quebec are exceeding their fundraising goals inevitably creates the impression that all is well in our sector when, in fact, these are challenging financial times.
Donations aren’t operating funds. Campaigns don’t pay salaries, keep the lights on or heat aging buildings.
As public institutions, our universities depend on the Quebec government to help cover operating expenses. But funding for higher education flatlined decades ago, and recent policies restricting student immigration have plunged many universities, including my own, into deficit.
In Quebec, economists estimate the university system suffers from an annual funding shortfall of at least $2 billion. Nonetheless, the government has imposed a two-year freeze on our operating budgets.
Education, research and the capacity to train highly qualified professionals are integral to any nation’s success in an era when knowledge, technology and innovation drive economic productivity. But there are worrying signs that the chronic underfunding of universities is catching up with us.
Quebec’s per capita GDP has long trailed the OECD average, and our labour productivity has yet to recover to its pre-pandemic level.
Our reputation and capacity to attract potential students is suffering too. In 2017, QS — a reputable rankings agency based in London — named Montreal the best university city in the world. For 2026, Montreal dropped to 18th.
Today, Toronto and Vancouver both rank ahead of Montreal in the Global Cities Index from Oxford Economics, due to their stronger economies and/or higher levels of human capital.
Over decades, even centuries, our universities have provided students with transformative experiences, generated high-impact research and contributed to the prosperity of cities and communities across Quebec.
And yet today we face an awkward paradox. While our alumni and supporters have never been more numerous or more generous, the Quebec government isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.
Perhaps the takeaway is, at least on a political level, our campaigns need to be explicit about how donations — whether from individuals, foundations or corporations — are declarations that thriving universities are critical to Quebec’s future.
Successful university fundraising campaigns are cause for celebration. But they can’t be an excuse to let the government off the hook. Instead, they should be a challenge to elected officials to step up, be responsible and forward-thinking, and do their part for Quebec’s universities too.
Graham Carr is president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University.
