Two Alberta colleges propose an upgrade to polytechnic universities

Officials argue Red Deer, Grand Prairie lose countless students to larger centres

Two Alberta colleges want to graduate to polytechnic university status to combat the urban drift — talented students moving to metropolitan centres like Edmonton and Calgary and never returning.

Under Red Deer College and Grande Prairie Regional College’s proposals, they would create education super-centres capable of offering everything from technical and trade diplomas and certificates to undergraduate degrees.

A polytechnic university designation does not currently exist in Alberta. However, it is used in other provinces and across North America, and would allow both colleges to offer their own undergraduate degrees in arts, business, education and nursing.

Currently, those degrees are designed by, and offered in collaboration with, the province’s larger institutes such as the University of Alberta, Mount Royal University and the University of Calgary.

Red Deer College president Joel Ward first brought the polytechnic university proposal to his board of governors in 2014, but the aspiration has been around about 25 years, he said.

For most of that time, when college students taking external degrees moved on in the final two years of their degree to larger centres to continue and complete their education, they seldom returned.

A survey of alumni found a vast majority would have completed degrees in Red Deer if it was an option, Ward said.

“We are looking at thousands and thousands of students who never came back,” Ward said. “When you think about the impact on culture, the impact on the economy, the impact on the social aspect of our communities in central Alberta, it’s a huge problem.

“The reality is, we are the third largest city in Alberta. We are not asking the government to build a university, we are simply saying let this institution evolve to be both that college and university for central Alberta.”

Since the college was founded in 1964, the population of the city has almost tripled to 98,585, from 24,446, and the catchment area it draws from in central Alberta has more than 350,000 people.

Outgoing student union president Ben Fleury, 30, is one of those students born and raised in Red Deer who will move away to complete the final two years of his four-year bachelor of arts degree at the University of Calgary.

“By the time you complete two years away in a bigger centre, you meet people, you make professional contacts and you don’t necessarily come back,” Fleury said.

The college designation is also harming student participation rates, Ward said. In Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge, the participation rate is around 34 per cent. Yet in Red Deer, it hovers around 17 per cent, he said.

That trend could be reversed by the new designation, and the newlook polytechnic university would act as an economic driver for central Alberta, Ward said.

“More students would have access to more programming that’s affordable and close to their own home,” he said. “And because they are trained here they would be more likely to stay here, raise a family, buy a car and buy a home here.”