Contact: Sarah Trower
Tel: (902) 494-6226
Email: communications@dsu.ca
August 17, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dalhousie slashes funding for Psychology interns
HALIFAX–Dalhousie University has decided to cut eight internship positions in the Psychology
PHD Department. Staffing shortages are already an issue in the mental health sector in the
province and these cuts will only compound the problem. The internship is a necessary
requirement to complete the PHD which means that after five years of studying and living in
Nova Scotia students will be forced to leave to complete their degree.
“These cuts will make the staffing shortage in this province much greater” Said Sean Aitkin,
President of the Psychology Association at Dalhousie University “Not only will we lose the intern
positions, those students are not like to return to Nova Scotia after they have done their work
term elsewhere.”
This decision doesn’t appear to make a lot of financial sense since the cost of having an intern
is just one third of what it costs to employ a fully licenced psychologist.
“If we want mental health services to be better we need to have professionals trained in Nova
Scotia” Said Marcel Peloquin a clinical student in psychology at Dalhousie “Students doing there
internships here are learning about the specific needs of the community they are training in.
There are invaluable skills that we can’t afford to loose”
“This is another short sighted cut to post-secondary education by the current government” Said
John Hutton, VP Academic and External of the Dalhousie Student Union, “As fees go up and
quality of programs go down we are continuing to loose students to more affordable provinces
like Newfoundland before and after they graduate.”
The Dalhousie Student Union is the province’s largest student union, representing over 18,500
undergraduate and graduate students at all campuses of Dalhousie University.
-30For more information or to set up an interview with a spokesperson contact:
Sarah Trower, Communications and Outreach Manager
communications@dsu.ca or (902) 494-6226