Alberta’s Minister of Enterprise and Advanced Education is starting the process of having the province’s post-secondary schools work together with letters sent to high-ranking officials at each of the province’s post-secondary institutions.
Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said he’s trying to make the province’s post-secondary system work fluidly, with all 26 post-secondary institutions on the same page.
“The problem is, there is very little collaboration going between these schools,” Lukaszuk said.
Lukaszuk said the schools are more or less isolated from each other, and he wants that to change – by cutting down on program and administration duplication – and having all of the province’s institutions working as part of ‘Campus Alberta’.
“What we are looking at is looking at best practices,” Lukaszuk said. “So a student who goes to U of Calgary, can actually take courses at U of L, or U of A, so they can share best practices between each other.”
The University of Alberta posted the draft of their ‘Letter of Expectation’ on their website Sunday, along with a brief statement from U of A President Indira Samarasekera and acting Provost and Vice-President Martin Ferguson-Pell.
According to the post, U of A executives had been reviewing the letter throughout the weekend, and officials said much of the letter falls under the university’s mandate – but some of it struck a chord, however, they didn’t elaborate on those points in the posting.
U of A officials told CTV News they knew a mandate letter was coming – but in the future, they want more flexibility.
Officials said a number of questions on the portability of courses had come out of the letter, for example, transferring a student into the second year of a professional course would be impossible, because fewer students are failing.
“So that creates an access problem, not an unwillingness to accept students from other locations or from other universities,” Martin Ferguson-Pell said.
In addition, the U of A is concerned about losing their identity, as the mandate letter said they would have to promote all of the province’s post-secondary institutions when they go abroad to recruit.
Universities and colleges throughout the province are trying to save money in the wake of the provincial budget, in the case of Macewan University – officials are looking to cut $15 million.
The university’s president said for those cuts, everything is on the table.
“The budget cut has come hand in glove with these mandate letters,” President David Atkinson said. “I think the government has every right in broad strokes to establish policy for the people of Alberta.”
The minister said dealing with inefficiencies within the post-secondary system could save students and taxpayers millions.
“There is a student body that calculated costs of students having to take classes again, are about $75 million to the taxpayer, and $25 million to the student,” Lukaszuk said. “That is simply unacceptable, in a province like ours with four million residents we need much more collaboration and that is what we are trying to achieve.
The U of A has a meeting with Lukaszuk on the matter on April 11.
With files from Kim Taylor
