Too popular U of A department seeks to lower enrolment again

For the fourth year in a row, the University of Alberta science faculty is raising admission requirements to reduce enrolment, which is now 600 higher than provincial funding covers.

High school graduates will now need a minimum mark of 80 per cent to get into the school.

At the same time, science dean Jonathon Schaefer took the unusual step of borrowing $1 million each year for the next five years to hire more faculty in what he calls “a buyer’s market” created by tight university funding across North America.

“I have a chance to hire some superstars and bring them to Alberta, because there’s not a lot of competition right now,” he said.

Over the past four years of tight budgets, the number of science professors fell from a high of 300 to 292, while at same time, student enrolment rose to 6,700 students, with provincial funding for only 6,100.

For the 600 unfunded students, the faculty receives no provincial grant ($10,000 per student), leaving it short by $6 million, said Schaeffer.

Providing instructors and classes for that unfunded group is a “significant financial pressure” and considerable burden on faculty and staff, he said.

“You can make some compromises, take two small sections and combine them into a bigger section, but you can only take it so far before the quality of what you are offering starts to degrade.”

By raising the entrance requirement, Schaeffer said he would like to see enrolment decline this fall to closer to 6,100, though he has no exact figure in mind.

“We can get back to personal interaction, better student engagement, the kind of things that add real value to undergraduate education,” he added.

In 2010, high school students needed 72 per cent to get into the science faculty. That was raised to 75 per cent in 2011 and 76 per cent in 2012.