MacEwan University won't change its focus
New designation, but school stays the same
Elise Stolte
Edmonton Journal
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Edmonton is set to become home to a new university today.
Grant MacEwan College is expected to change its name to Grant MacEwan University at an announcement today with Premier Ed Stelmach and the minister of advanced education, Doug Horner.
Administrators applied to change the name last June, and their sister college in Calgary became Mount Royal University on Sept. 3.
"Changing your name doesn't change who you are," said Eric Young, chairman of the board of governors. "We're not embarking on becoming a research institution."
Students have mixed reactions, some worried the college is leaving its roots. "I'm worried class sizes would explode," said physiotherapy student Janet Kelly.
"It might become more competitive to get into because they only have so many spaces," said her friend, Heather Franz. But she was in favour of a name change overall, because it could help MacEwan expand.
Currently, students can earn a two-year diploma at MacEwan to be a physiotherapy assistant, but have to transfer to the University of Calgary if they want the degree necessary to become a physiotherapist.
The university name definitely feels better, said Karlie Ring, who is taking a diploma in social work. "It looks better on a resume."
The decision to apply for university status came down to prestige and perception, said Young.
In Canada, there is less respect for the title college than there is in the United States or in Britain, he said. Here, a college degree is looked down on by some students and other universities, even though a degree from either a college or a university has to be approved by the same provincially appointed quality council.
Critics have accused MacEwan of planning to abandon its certificate and diploma programs, but Young said MacEwan is not looking at dropping any programs. "As long as there is demand for those programs, they will be offered."
As for forsaking the institution's roots as a community college, he said, "I don't know that the roots are necessarily in exactly what you offer. The roots are in that culture of being a very student-focused institution. Our primary focus is our students."
The college launched a four-year arts degree in 2006, and has added others in nursing, commerce, child and youth care, and now science. The name change is "just formal recognition of what we've been doing for quite some time," said Jerry Zdril, head of the faculty association.
Faculty in the degree programs are already required to do more research, even though they are forbidden by the province from doing the strictly applied research common at institutions such as the University of Alberta.
But for the more than 50,000 alumni of the college, the name change can't do much, at least not without fudging a resume, said Barbara North, who runs workshops of resumes and employment for Edmonton's BGS Enterprises.
"People can't fool themselves. They're not all of a sudden university graduates," she said. She would still write Grant MacEwan College, then add in brackets "now a university" in a resume. "The institution is really minor. It's the program that matters."
MacEwan was founded in 1971 as Grant MacEwan Community College, named after the former lieutenant-governor of Alberta. The college dropped the term "community" in 1999.
© The Edmonton Journal 2009
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