Thank you, and I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear here. We certainly appreciate the important role that you have in shaping the federal budget, and we welcome the theme of supporting families and vulnerable Canadians.
As was mentioned, I'm the president of the University of Manitoba and also chair of the board of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. I was the first person in my family to go to university. Universities today are quite a bit different from what they were when I attended. Universities are evolving through innovation and as a result remain the surest path to prosperity for Canadian families. They open us up to larger worlds, and they have never been more flexible, offered more options, or been more visionary than they are today. I think higher education in Canada is not standing still. Canada's universities are extending their reach and stretching the boundaries of traditional education to make sure we continue to lead in the world.
With respect to employment, as this committee examines the federal government's role in supporting families and vulnerable Canadians—the theme for today's panel—we believe good job opportunities are essential to success in this. Canada needs the skills of all kinds of graduates to keep us competitive in the global economy. The data are clear with respect to our sector. University education means high-quality jobs. Over the last six years more than twice as many new jobs have been created for university graduates as for colleges and trades graduates combined. Even in Alberta 56% of net new jobs have been for university graduates, and over their careers university graduates typically earn 50% more than other full-time workers without a university degree.
We welcomed the committee's study on youth employment and its recommendations last spring. We were pleased to see your support for our main recommendation to support increased experiential learning opportunities. That recommendation is here again in our submission to you for these pre-budget consultations. To be explicit, we recommend that the federal government invest in an integrated package of programs building on those that already exist and developing new options to offer more career-boosting opportunities for Canadian youth including supports for employers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to hire co-op students and paid interns, and additional funding for research internships through Mitacs' programs.
With respect to research, this committee has been steadfast in its support of the importance of research, contributing in a significant way last year to the funding of the Canada First research excellence fund in budget 2014. We believe that the world-class research done at our universities and in communities across Canada is also crucial to the goal of supporting families and helping vulnerable Canadians. Our researchers are helping to advance progress in everything from new ways to predict autism very early in a child's life to research on understanding the aging process—which is of more interest to some of us than to others—to shedding light on causes of disease and disability.
In the research component of our submission, AUCC recommends long-term sustained funding through the granting councils, with the rate of growth leading the economy, and predictable multi-year funding for research infrastructure through the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
As a final topic, with respect to aboriginal education, since we are talking today about supporting families and vulnerable Canadians, we know that some of the most vulnerable are from aboriginal communities. I had the honour to be with the Prime Minister in Alberta when the agreement on K-to-12 education was announced last February, and we urge government to continue to work with first nations leaders to address issues in the K-to-12 system. While doing that, though, we can look to the post-secondary level at the same time. Universities have made gains in increasing access and success. We offer 350 programs across the country with more than one-third of these offered off-campus in communities.
At the University of Manitoba, for example, we strive to ensure that first nations, Métis, and Inuit values are acknowledged, embraced, and infused into life on our campuses. Creating space to allow indigenous students to see themselves in the fabric of our university is crucial. For example, our own Migizii Agamik Bald Eagle Lodge is a place of pride for the over 2,000 indigenous students and many indigenous faculty and staff at the University of Manitoba. Supporting students is key to all of our academic institutions. We want to make our university a welcoming place for all of them. So with respect to this, we recommend direct financial support to students, and support for university initiatives working with local communities.
Again, thank you.