The University of New Brunswick is facing a financial crisis and finding a solution is everyone's problem, president John McLaughlin says.

McLaughlin said a recent report shows UNB is coping well with day-to-day financial challenges, but the long-term future is bleak for his school and all New Brunswick universities.

"On a day-to-day basis, we're operating a system that's financially very conservative," McLaughlin said Thursday.

The long-term challenges faced by UNB, which is based in Fredericton and Saint John and is the province's largest post-secondary institution, include deferred maintenance on aging facilities, shrinking enrolment numbers and rising tuition fees in New Brunswick.

McLaughlin said Maritime tuition rates are very high by Canadian standards.

Jessica Stutt, president UNB Fredericton's student union, agrees.

"They can't turn to students anymore," Stutt said. "Tuition can't go any higher."

The university is also looking at other sources of revenue, including fundraising drives and enrolment campaigns aimed at mature and part-time students.

McLaughlin said the government needs to be part of the solution, but he also believes the problem lies with the province's post-secondary education model.

"It's not that any given government hasn't been concerned and supportive. They have. It's that the system itself, over 40 years of changing enrolment trends, changing requirements for research and development and new programs, hasn't kept up."

New Brunswick schools must compete with those in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, provinces McLaughlin said have invested billions in their post-secondary systems.

"The competition is becoming intense," McLaughlin said. "We need to be engaged with the other universities, with the community college system, with private industry, with everybody to talk about what are the needs going forward for post-secondary education in New Brunswick."

McLaughlin said he's hoping a commission on post-secondary education, which is expected to be appointed by Premier Shawn Graham on Friday, will help find long-term funding solutions. Otherwise, he said UNB will have to deal with some serious problems.

"Long-term decay," McLaughlin said. "I may be generous in saying that we have a decade, we may have less. But we don't have a lot of time to make some fundamental changes."

The commission will review whether New Brunswick's five universities and network of community colleges are being funded and administered properly.