Providing post-secondary education to residents of Manitoba's rural northern communities continues to be a challenge. University College of the North is ideally situated to reach potential students living in northern Manitoba. It offers basic education upgrading and adult literacy programs, as well as post-secondary transition and preparatory programs for under-prepared students. It is developing academic programs in conjunction with other post-secondary institutions in the province. Additionally, its mandate offers community-centered learning, characterized by a "culture of openness, inclusiveness and tolerance and respectful of Aboriginal and northern values". Campus Manitoba is a consortium of all of the public colleges and universities in Manitoba. Through distributed learning mechanisms such as the Internet, it allows students to complete a significant portion of a college certificate, diploma, or university degree while staying in their home community. In 2009/10, the Rural/Northern Bursary was added as part of the Manitoba Bursary budget to assist students who need to relocate from northern and rural communities to attend post-secondary studies.
A major public review of higher education in Manitoba, submitted in 1973 under the title of the Task Force on Postsecondary Education, more commonly known as the Oliver Commission, recommended closer articulation between Manitoba's universities and community colleges. The system remains a binary one, however, with few university transfer programs or college courses which can be applied towards a university degree. In June 2011, the public college and university presidents in Manitoba signed a memorandum of understanding intended to make it easier for students to transfer credits between post-secondary institutions and receive credit for prior learning therefore increasing student mobility.
The Roblin Commission of 1993 and subsequent declining allocations of the public purse have made it clear that post-secondary institutions will have to find their own private sources of funding to make up shortfalls in general operating budgets. In 2010, the province of Manitoba spent 2.6% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on tertiary education; slightly less than the national average of 2.7%.