MacEwan mulls university status
Proposal draws lukewarm attention from college
Keith Gerein
The Edmonton Journal
Friday, February 06, 2009
MacEwan College could soon become Grant MacEwan University, an idea now under serious consideration despite the school's long insistence it has little interest in such a change.
"We were not actively pursuing university status, but we are not completely opposed to the option," MacEwan spokesman David Beharry said on Thursday. "It's not something we'd shy away from, but we need to look over the details of the legislation."
The legislation in question is proposed changes to the Post-Secondary Learning Act that would allow only MacEwan and Mount Royal College -- both of which offer a number of bachelors degrees -- to rename themselves with a university label.
While the Calgary college has been aggressively pursuing the change for years, MacEwan has expressed little enthusiasm. As late as last fall, MacEwan president Paul Byrne suggested the school would continue to see itself as a college well into the future.
"Our goal is to become the best undergraduate degree college in Canada," he said at the time.
But now that the province is providing a new option, it would be unwise to dismiss it outright, Beharry said.
Whether Edmonton gets a second university is a decision likely a long way off, said Maigan van der Giessen, president of the MacEwan Students' Association.
She said a change of status is an intriguing idea that could bring a number of benefits, but students and administrators must discuss the issue to determine how any alteration might impact public perception.
MacEwan offers bachelor's degrees in arts, nursing, commerce, and in child and youth care. A fifth, a bachelor of science, is set to start up this fall, while two others in music and communications are in the works for future years.
The school has recently been drawing more international interest, mainly on the strength of its degree programs, so a formal name change to university could further aid those efforts, van der Giessen suggested.
MacEwan students may also find it easier to move into grad school with a degree from a university rather than a college.
Grant MacEwan University College is another possibility, but regardless of what name is chosen "we will continue to brand ourselves with the one-word identifier -- MacEwan," Beharry said.
Last year, the government completed a new "roles and mandates" policy that aims to reduce competition among the schools by spelling out how each college, university and institute fits into the post-secondary system.
MacEwan and Mount Royal are both known as baccalaureate and applied studies institutions, which means they can offer degrees in certain areas along with a variety of other programs.
That status won't change even if the names do, said Rachel Bouska, spokeswoman for Alberta Advanced Education and Technology.
So even if the schools become universities, they will be universities that must offer diplomas, certificates, applied degrees and transfer programs, she said.
"In no way will it change their mandate or role as an institution," Bouska said. "They still have to offer the range of programming they already have."
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© The Edmonton Journal 2009
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