OTTAWA--Recommendations released by the federal Finance Committee yesterday, failed to adequately address the chronic underfunding of basic university research and graduate studies in Canada."There is a growing crisis of underfunding in graduate studies," said Andrea Balon, a Representative of the National Graduate Caucus. "A vague recommendation to increase funding to the granting councils will not make Canada a world leader in academic research."

The Finance committee's recommendations were to increase funding to the research granting councils and promote commercialisation of public university research. Graduate students' recommendations included doubling the number of Canada Graduate Scholarships, increasing funding to the research granting councils allocated according to enrollment, and promoting basic, curiosity-driven university research."Incentives for private investment in university research discourages the private sector from developing its own research capacity," added Balon. "The government's commercialisation agenda reduces job opportunities for students, has failed to deliver results and should be dropped."

The National Graduate Caucus is the largest graduate students' organisation in Canada, representing more than 70,000 graduate students from over 30 campuses in the Canadian Federation of Students.