Image from Lethbridge College

By Sarah Jones

Alberta 2030 plan to reconstruct the future of post-secondary education

Apr 29, 2021 | 12:19 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB– Post-Secondary education will be getting a total re-vamp within the next 10 years.

Minister of Advanced Education, Demetrios Nicolaides announced today Alberta’s 2030 plan for transforming post-secondary education to better Alberta’s future.

The Alberta 2030 plan is based on six goals to achieve a common vision for higher education: Improve access and student experience, develop skills for jobs, support innovation and commercialization, strengthen internationalization, improve sustainability and affordability, and strengthen system governance.

Broken down below, the six goals are as introduced by Minister Nicolaides.

Improving Access and Student Experience means the focus on improving the transfer systems so it becomes easier to transfer credits over to different institutions, while not having to re-take classes. As well as developing target strategies to strengthen the inclusion of Indigenous learners.

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Developing Skills for Jobs, this goal is planning on making Alberta the first province in Canada to offer every graduate a work-integrated learning opportunity. As well a provincial framework will be put in place to guide micro-credentials.

Supporting Innovation and Commercialization is focused on creating centralized first-rate resources to expand commercialization and entrepreneurship capabilities. This goal will also focus on incentivizing faculty to pursue entrepreneurial activities and will bring post-secondary institutions together with investors and the private sector to advance cutting-edge research and innovation.

Strengthening Internationalization, Alberta 2030 will concentrate on developing education with an Alberta brand, with promotional material to demonstrate the top reasons to study in Alberta. It will also include increased visibility to international education offerings and implement an international marketing strategy that will include Team Alberta missions to priority regions.

Improving Sustainability and Affordability, Alberta will achieve this goal by maintaining a cap on tuition increases. It will also be increasing need-based financial aid, and deconsolidation of large post-secondary institutions to give them more freedom and autonomy.

Strengthening System Governance will lead to a series of amendments to the Post-Secondary Learning Act that will achieve, a new higher education council to be implemented. It will guide system-wide collaboration, learn from best practices around the world, and provide strategic feedback to the Minister. The current six-sector model will be downsized to only two committees, one for colleges and one for universities. Each sector will have a coordinating committee that will work to reduce unnecessary duplications and achieve common goals.

The six goals for this program came to fruition after extensive research from key stakeholders and immense public engagement. Nicolaides used feedback from the public to create a clear vision for the future of post-secondary education.

“We will be moving forward immediately on strengthing work-integrated learning, deconsolidation our largest institutions, expanding re-skilling and up-skilling opportunities, and creating new apprenticeships with more initiatives to be rolled out in the coming weeks and months.”

With implementation being rolled out within the near future, the government is planning to make a $15-million dollar investment over the next three years through a partnership with Mitacs to support more than 3,800 internship opportunities. As well as a commitment of more than $28.8 million to support healthy campuses and student mental health.