[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-596663-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-596663-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","financing-canadian-universities-major-changes-since-1802","Financing Canadian Universities: Major Changes Since 1802","","Financing Canadian universities is analyzed through long-run trends in revenues, expenditures, and government contributions from the early 1800s to 2014. The study traces shifts across successive economic systems, showing how tuition growth, changing federal and provincial transfers, and policy orientations shaped university funding. It also links the composition of revenue sources to major historical transitions, including periods of regulation, increased public spending, and later moves toward free-market and neoliberal approaches.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/financing-canadian-universities-major-changes-since-1802/596663/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/financing-canadian-universities-major-changes-since-1802/596663.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Muffet","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",9,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How did university expenditures evolve as enrollments increased?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"As annual university enrolments grew to 1,147,233 in 2012, university expenditures rose correspondingly. The text highlights large growth in revenues and expenditures over time alongside enrollment expansion.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What happened to government contributions to university revenues over the long run?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Government contributions fluctuated strongly, rising to a high of 81% in the mid-to late 1970s and then falling to 48% in 2014. Earlier levels are described as moving from 62% in 1920 to 46% in 1935.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Which economic-system periods are used to explain funding changes?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The document groups changes into three broad periods: mercantilism until about 1840, free markets until the 1930s, and Keynesian mixed-markets until 1984, followed by renewed free-market dynamics. It notes that transitions occurred gradually after boundary years (1840, 1930, 1984).","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},596663,1792191148,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962090768927,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","FINANCING CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES:  \nMAJOR CHANGES SINCE 18021  \nFranz W. Nentwich  \nUniversities began operating in the present borders of Canada in 1802. As  \nannual enrolments grew to 1,147,233 in 2012, so too did university  \nexpenditures. Government contributions to university revenues fluctuated from 62% in 1920 to 46% in 1935, reaching a high of 81% in the mid-to late 1970s, then falling to 48% in 2014. Annual university revenues increased  \nabout 275 times between 1920 and 2014 (in constant 2014 dollars), from  \n$129.3 million to $35.5 billion. In the two centuries between 1813 and 2013, undergraduate fees (in constant 2013 dollars) increased by a factor of 24, from $236 to $5,720 .  \n“Follow the money!” This was the suggestion of an anonymous informant in the movie“All the President’s Men,” after one journalist lamented that “All we’ve got is pieces. We can’t seem to figure out what the puzzle is supposed to look like.” Similarly, anyone researching the financing of Canadian universities will find a difficult puzzle to solve, with each province being a different piece of the financial puzzle. Of course, the general features are well known. For instance, in 2009, 6.6% of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) was spent on all educational institutions, slightly more than the average of 6.3% for OECD countries, with 2.7% flowing to all tertiary education institutions (universities and community colleges combined), more than the 2.1% spent in 1995 or the 2.3% in 2000 (OECD, 2013) . Of 83 degree-granting universities in Canada, 20 were medical/doctoral, 23 were comprehensive, and most of the remaining 40 were primarily undergraduate (Fisher & Rubenson, 2010) . In 2014, 106 universities in Canada were  \n1 I thank Jamie Magnusson at the University of Toronto for comments on an early version of the manuscript.  \nmembers of the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO), 55 of which had enrolments of more than 4,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students (CAUBO, 2015a) .  \nInitially, my interest in this topic was sparked by the large increase in student fees since 1971, when I began undergraduate studies at Carleton University. Fees by themselves are only part of the story, however, and so I have attempted to understand the other major changes in the financing of Canadian universities. Initially, I found some financial aspects on Canadian universities for the period 1802 to 1995 in the comprehensive books on Canadian universities by Harris (1976), Cameron (1991) and Jones (1997a). Additional information for the period 1980 to 2010 for British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec was obtained from Fisher, Rubenson, Shanahan, and Trottier (2014) .  \nSince 1802, when the first university was established within the present borders of Canada, the percentages of university revenues from governments changed during three different economic systems (Tables 1, 2 and 3) . In a general sense, mercantilism dominated until about 1840, free-markets until the 1930s, Keynsian mixed-markets until 1984, and, thereafter, freemarkets once again (Norrie & Owram, 1991; Yergin & Stanislaw, 1998; Cran, 2003; Hayling, Whitecross, & Winterbottom, 2009) . It is important to realize that the boundaries between these periods—1840, 1930, and 1984—mark the initial year after which the economic transitions took place, and that some of these changes were gradual over several years.  \nIn about 1868, annual government grants to universities were about $67,000 (~$1.56 million in 2014), allocated as follows: $24,000 for Ontario; $22,000 for Quebec; $13,000 for New Brunswick; and $8,000 for Nova Scotia (Murray, 1928) . Because total enrolments were  \n1,561 in 1871, according to Harris (1976, p. 623), annual government spending per student was then about $43 (~ $1,000 in 2014) . During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Canadian  \ngovernment transitioned slowly to a Keynsian mixed-market economy, characterized initially by more regulations, and, after 1938,","cbCaimynMotFagBa","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimynMotFagBa","pdf",925043,73,"English","# Overview of university financing trends\n## Enrollment growth and expenditure increases\n## Government contributions and revenue composition\n## Funding changes across economic systems\n## Policy shifts and impacts on tuition and spending","[{\"question\":\"How did university expenditures evolve as enrollments increased?\",\"answer\":\"As annual university enrolments grew to 1,147,233 in 2012, university expenditures rose correspondingly. The text highlights large growth in revenues and expenditures over time alongside enrollment expansion.\"},{\"question\":\"What happened to government contributions to university revenues over the long run?\",\"answer\":\"Government contributions fluctuated strongly, rising to a high of 81% in the mid-to late 1970s and then falling to 48% in 2014. Earlier levels are described as moving from 62% in 1920 to 46% in 1935.\"},{\"question\":\"Which economic-system periods are used to explain funding changes?\",\"answer\":\"The document groups changes into three broad periods: mercantilism until about 1840, free markets until the 1930s, and Keynesian mixed-markets until 1984, followed by renewed free-market dynamics. It notes that transitions occurred gradually after boundary years (1840, 1930, 1984).\"}]","Financing Canadian Universities: Major Changes Since 1802 | PDF",1792083498,184]