EDMONTON -- Red Deer College will see a steep decrease in its Campus Alberta Operating Grant after the latest UCP budget.
A 7.4 per cent reduction will translate to a loss of $3.6 million — which follows a $1.2-million cut issued last October.
Red Deer College President Peter Nunoda said the school planned for a reduction in funding, but not a cut this big.
“We had been doing budget planning up to that point, but we didn’t realize how great the reduction was going to be,” said Nunoda. “So, now we will be entering into a second set of planning to determine how we bridge that gap.”
Students will see a hike in tuition as a result of the funding cut. Under the new government framework, post-secondary institutions can increase tuition across the board with an average of seven per cent per year for the next three years. Nunoda said he understands that the rising tuition may make it difficult for some students to access post-secondary education.
“If there is a fear that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will have limited access to post-secondary at Red Deer College, that’s not the case,” said Nunoda.
“We’re going to look for all of the means possible to increase scholarships and bursaries for students from those income categories.”
An area of focus for the college is going to be revenue generation. They are planning to market to more international students with the goal of recruiting 500 new international students for the upcoming academic year.
“That will, obviously, provide some self-generated revenue that we didn’t have before,” said Nunoda.
Other Alberta post-secondary institutions have been announcing workforce cuts. Most recently, NAIT said it would cut as many as 240 jobs after the latest budget.
“Our last resort is either program cuts or workforce reduction,” he said.
“What we want here at Red Deer College is a long-term sustainable model for post-secondary education."
