Red Deer College Students’ Association vows to continue to push for access to degrees for central Alberta students.
President Brittany Lausen said for too long students have been silently trusting the government’s approval process.
“I just don’t understand why it’s taking so long. When the government got into office they talked about red tape reduction. To me if something takes three years to get passed, that sounds like a lot of red tape,” Lausen said at a small demonstration outside the college on Wednesday morning.
“The student association of Red Deer College is committed to making noise for the students of Red Deer College and the people of central Alberta until we get degrees.”
RDC has five degrees submitted for government approval: Bachelor of Education (BEd), Bachelor of Science Psychology (BSc Psych), Bachelor of Arts Psychology (BA Psych), Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), and Bachelor of Science Biology (BSc Biology).
She said in the legislature on Tuesday Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides said Campus Alberta Quality Council has not yet made recommendations on the degrees.
“It doesn’t matter because at the end of the day, government has the power and authority to grant us degrees right now without us being a polytechnic or university,” Lausen said.
Related:
Red Deer College Students’ Association pushes for degrees
Red Deer College expects to become polytechnic institution, not a university
NDP education critic David Eggen said the minister didn’t seem to have answer about why the five degrees were not moving forward when he was asked on Tuesday.
“It’s sending a bad message. Already it seems like the UCP is moving backwards on the college becoming on a university, and they’re not moving forward on any of these degrees that we could have now at the college,” Eggen said.
“The city of Red Deer is now more than 100,000, and the college is a very important part of the development of this community and the development of the economy of Red Deer and central Alberta.”
He said the MLAs that represent Red Deer need to “step up and advocate for the college properly.” The city and region need to get what they deserve for the sake of its young people and diversifying the local economy.
For more information, visit the Facebook group RDC Needs Degrees.
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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