As the last grim signs of winter fade from Canadian campuses, the spring rite of cutting classes is taking on a whole new meaning.

'I think students are concerned that their breadth of knowledge is going to be reduced,' says Talia Radcliffe, head of the student government at Queen's University.

'I think students are concerned that their breadth of knowledge is going to be reduced,' says Talia Radcliffe, head of the student government at Queen's University.

Course calendars across the country are under the microscope as universities, trying to do more with less, are taking a hard look at programs and class sizes. The end result will likely be fewer choices for undergraduates and larger classes in September - another symptom of the financial squeeze on higher education.

The new measures are sparking a wave of protests on-line and on campus from students and academics worried that the elimination of programs will narrow the scope of teaching and research, and diminish the quality of education.

Student leaders fear tuition hikes in the coming years, and new measures such as the University of Toronto's plan for flat fees for full-time arts and science students regardless of course load.

"I think students at large are concerned that their breadth of knowledge is going to be reduced," said Talia Radcliffe, head of student government at Queen's University, where undergraduates recently protested against proposed cuts to a range of courses. "We are paying more and getting less."

Campus leaders said they have few options.

"This is the only way to cope with the resources we have," said Amit Chakma, provost at the University of Waterloo and soon to be president at the University of Western Ontario.

Waterloo is not eliminating specific programs, but is discouraging undergraduate classes with fewer than 10 students, a move Dr. Chakma said will likely lead to fewer courses, especially in smaller departments. Classes of fewer than 10 students will no longer be counted in a professor's teaching load.

At a time when retiring faculty are not being replaced, the measure is needed, he said, to ensure that all professors share the workload and to prevent an increased reliance on part-time faculty. Asked if small classes are not the ideal of higher education, Dr. Chakma said they are unaffordable when the average student-faculty ratio is 27:1.

"You cannot have an Oxford type environment in the context of a publicly funded university," he said. "We are not able to give that personal attention. This is the reality of Canada. We still have very good quality of education, but we are struggling."

At the University of Toronto, protests are rising over a proposal to charge all full-time arts and science students full tuition even if they take only three or four courses.

Colum Grove-White, president of the Arts & Science Students Union, said the move is being pitched as a way to save and perhaps even enhance services, but he is skeptical that the university can avoid cuts, even with the extra millions the flat tuition fee is expected to bring in.

All this has scholars such as Ian Angus worried that the innovative programs introduced on Canadian campuses in the past three decades are being dismantled with little debate.

The director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Simon Fraser University has seen his program's modest teaching budget eliminated, which will make it impossible for it to offer courses next fall and will force it to close. "It's a big mistake," he said of this trend. "Programs are in danger because traditional and large departments have so much influence."