As part of Budget 2014, the Ministry of Advanced Education budget is projected to be $1.951 billion in 2014/15.

In 2014/15, the B.C. government will invest over $1.8 billion to support operations at public post-secondary institutions, an increase of 44 per cent since 2001.

In 2012, B.C.'s advanced education ministry in collaboration with public institutions began a process of finding administrative efficiencies in the system, building on the work already underway at some institutions. The goal is to find administrative efficiencies, while protecting and maximizing taxpayers' investments in students' education.

The first step identified more than 20 opportunities for improvement. Those include steps such as shared purchasing of computers; shared contracts to reduce merchant fees charged on credit card transactions; and working together to further reduce shipping costs. It also looks at best practices - that is, ways of using the expertise one institution might have and sharing that knowledge with others across the system.

The opportunities selected by government and institutions for implementation can provide significant improvement in service delivery over the near term. They will respect collective agreements and regional contracts already in place and are not expected to result in any staff reductions. A full list of the steps was posted to the ministry website following the release of the provincial budget in February.

The provincial government took those anticipated efficiencies into consideration when it delivered B.C.'s 2013 Balanced Budget. The savings in the advanced education budget over the next three years are completely reflective of these efficiencies taking flight. In 2013/14, it is a total of $5 million. The Budget recognizes the anticipated savings can't happen overnight and is allowing time for them to take effect over the next couple of years. Work is underway on the next phase of the project, which involves developing business cases to support implementing the selected opportunities.

Read more:

• Post-secondary sector Administrative Service Delivery Transformation project
• Ministry factsheet
• Public Post Secondary factsheets:
• Universities
• Colleges
• Institutes

Contact:

GCPE Advanced Education
250 952-6400