Universities are not being held accountable for how they spend public funds, according to a new report from the Nova Scotia Auditor General.
In the last five years, the province’s 10 universities have received $1.9 billion in “unrestricted operating grants,” which means they can use that money for whatever they choose, according to Auditor General Kim Adair.
“As there are no restrictions on this funding, the universities could freely decide to spend it on areas such as student aid, routine maintenance, staff salaries or executive compensation,” said Adair.
Over the last five years, the government spent a total of $2.5 billion on post-secondary schools. On average, the schools rely on the government for a third of their funds.
Government already making changes
The audit was released in between two major moves from the government to change how universities explain their spending.
One is a set of bilateral agreements with universities, established a little over a year ago, that create some accountability measures. The other is a new bill on the table of the legislature that would link funding decisions to government priorities and let the advanced education minister appoint up to half of the members of university boards.
The schools were also supposed to develop proposals for 2025 to 2028 about how they would advance government priorities, like health care, housing, and labour market needs, according to a news release.
Adair said that those agreements would give people a better understanding of how schools are spending government money, but $139.9 million was recently paid to universities before those agreements were signed.
No stats to show funding creates health jobs
In the last five years, the government handed out $277 million for health education.
As part of the bilateral agreements, the province required schools to fill 97 per cent of health program seats at the time of enrolment. But the province could not say how many new health care professionals entered the industry because of government funding.
“The department could not say whether it has made any difference,” Adair said.
New bill on the table
The government also tabled a new bill last month to link university funding to the government’s priorities, and it would also let the minister of advanced education appoint up to half of the board members for a university’s board of governors.
The audit period ended in September 2024, so Adair had not considered it in the audit.
She would not comment on the policy while speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning.
Some recommendations already complete
Advanced Education Minister Brendan Maguire said they put the recent bill before the house to work with universities more, creating “stop gaps” to help them avoid insolvency or bankruptcy.
“There was nothing really surprising that came out of that report. We kind of knew the situation,” said Maguire.
The province has already accepted the 11 recommendations from the report, and three recommendations are already complete, including formalizing the process to make sure post-secondary schools comply with their funding agreements.
For a full list of recommendations and to read the report, click here.
