Campus Alberta plan ‘confusing.’
Leadership needed to end confusion
The province’s high-profile plan to get colleges and universities working closer together is confusing, lacks targets and deadlines, and leaves universities and colleges struggling to figure out how to respond, auditor general Merwan Saher says in a highly critical report.
“‘Confusion’ is the word I would use,” to describe the province’s push to eliminate duplication, find efficiencies and allow students to seamlessly transfer between campuses under the Campus Alberta banner, said Saher.
While it makes sense to pursue more integration to serve students better, Campus Alberta isn’t yet working well, though it was first introduced in 2002, noted Saher, who surveyed senior administrators at colleges and universities.
“Any partnership effort always has to have a managing partner. It’s the minister, as far as I’m concerned,” said Saher, calling on the ministry to work with colleges and universities on a business plan.
Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk says he “embraces” the report and noted he is already taking steps to set up a Campus Alberta Implementation Committee to help provide overall direction.
Also, his department sent out mandate letters for each institution earlier this spring, a move endorsed by the auditor general, noted Lukaszuk. Those letters will help give direction, he added.
“The auditor general has verified what I think needs to be done and I’m glad we are working ahead of his report,” said Lukaszuk in an interview from Calgary.
Lukaszuk renewed the push for closer integration under the Campus Alberta banner this spring after the post-secondary budget was cut by $147 million — about eight per cent — leaving institutions scrambling to cope.
Saher said progress will be slow integrating the various campuses until there is a clear plan with timelines and new structures to replace ad hoc, case-by-case collaboration.
“Institutions do not clearly understand what the minister wants Campus Alberta to achieve or how to achieve it,” says the report.
There’s also a problem finding funds for these new collaborative projects and measuring their success.
“The department and institutions have not identified sustainable funding sources for collaborative initiatives,” no benchmarks to see if they are working, and no public reporting, says the report.
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said the report shows the government’s plan “to centralize” post-secondary education is “a failure” and should be called off.
“Every time the government centralizes services, they create an utter mess,” said Smith in a release, comparing Campus Alberta to the “chaos” in Alberta Health Services. The province recently fired the AHS board.
New Democrat critic Dave Eggen said the report shows that Campus Alberta is little more than “a glib buzzword” and the lack of direction is causing frustration and anger on campus.
“The auditor general said the obvious thing ... that post-secondary is in a state of confusion because of budget cuts and lack of direction on the Campus Alberta Initiative,” said Eggen.
The report also shows that “poor planning preceded the massive cuts,” said Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which has seen layoffs on campus.
Meanwhile, the report also criticized post-secondary institutions for setting up “complicated” new agencies to run three specific collaborative projects, not reporting publicly on their cost, and not identifying where the funding is coming from.
Those projects included the online Lois Hole digital library at the University of Alberta, which provides access to online resources, and the $20-million Apply Alberta initiative — an online system allowing students to apply to any institution and allowing for electronic transfer of high school records.
That project took two years longer than expected, “with significant problems during planning and development,” says the report.
The auditor general also took a close look at a third initiative to devise common IT policies and templates for all institutions.
“The department and institutions have not publicly reported the measures, results and cost to implement and sustain these three initiatives,” the report says.
The agencies set up by universities to run these projects are spending tax dollars without reporting to the public, and “that’s a non-starter” said Saher.
“These new entities seemingly do not have to meet the same accountabilities” that other provincial agencies have to meet, says the report.
The report also noted that Advanced Education set up a central administration for Campus Alberta in 2009 to help with collaboration, but it was abandoned in June 2012 “due to insufficient support from the institutions and lack of funding.”
U of A acting provost Martin Ferguson-Pell was unavailable for comment.