While some institutions are bemoaning the recently issued Alberta post-secondary letters of expectation, Red Deer College is looking at how it will work within the newly defined parameters.
The letter outlines the college’s responsibilities, funding and the government’s responsibilities.
With the letters being issued on Friday evening, RDC president Joel Ward took the weekend to review it and is ready to work with the province in better defining the college’s role.
Ward said the letters of expectation, or mandate letters, each institution received were pretty similar, except for the amount of grant money received and the difference between university and college research.
“We look at things differently from universities,” said Ward.
“The views of our university partners and their fight for independence is something very important to them and I respect that. ... We’re not a university, we’re a college, we’re about inclusion, not exclusion. We don’t brag when we keep people out of our institution because their average isn’t high enough.
“We’re a different type of institution and that’s what has me more excited about this than perhaps the universities are.”
The University of Alberta issued an open letter on Monday warning of the consequences that could accompany the change outlined in these mandate letters.
Red Deer College was asked to identify three institutional strengths and how they would contribute to the Campus Alberta, which Ward said they hadn’t been asked to do before.
“I think the intent here would be to find ways in which institutions can specialize more or become centres of excellence in some things,” said Ward. “I think that’s exciting for us at RDC, thinking how that might work for us.”
He pointed to the centre for innovation and manufacturing, the trades and technology comprehensive programming, Campus Alberta and connection to the community as making RDC unique.
“They are very much interested in reducing program duplication,” said Ward. “I think it’s important that the programs we offer are in demand by students and employers.
“As they look at eliminating duplication, it may make sense for some institutions to stop doing things. And other institutions to start doing more of something.”
And while program reduction is a possibility under these new letters of expectation, Ward pointed to the fact RDC is a comprehensive college that has a much broader range of programming.
“We have to be careful we don’t specialize too much because we’re not Calgary or Edmonton where there are five institutions in each city and they can specialize way more than we can,” said Ward.
“We have a delicate balance we have to work on. I’ve been really clear to them about this, we are a different type of institution.”
Olds College president Tom Thompson said the college has a quite a process ahead.
“It is a draft,” said Thompson. “We’ll have to make sure we vet it with our college stakeholders up to our board because I think it’s very clear that by the end of April, the draft has to be signed by the board chair.”
Thompson is pleased about the consultation coming up with the department in mid-April.
“I think it’s an attempt on the part of the ministry to provide the direction to the institutions going forward,” said Thompson.
The big takeaway for Ward, if the government follows through with it, is to allow students to keep their credits no matter where they transfer to in the province.
“The government is very much committed to learners getting credit for the courses they take in any institution in Alberta,” said Ward. “We love that and we think it is really important.”
Currently, RDC and other institutions have to negotiate agreements with other post-secondary institutions to allow students to transfer with the credits they earned at RDC.
“I’ve been here four years and I’ve been asking for this for quite a while,” said Ward. “I think there has been some reluctance in some institutions to do this kind of work and so I think the government is hearing what some students and institutions are saying and replying ‘If you guys can’t make it work yourself, then we’re going to make it work for you.’ ”
Ward said the college has about 2,500 transfer students every year who go on to universities in the province and sometimes are disadvantaged because of where they started.
Following the issuing of the letters, there will be a meeting on April 11 with the Department of Enterprise and Advanced Education for further discussion.
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com