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Dr. Peter Nunoda, president of Red Deer College. (RDC)
Ready To Adapt

RDC president confident for success under new provincial funding model

Jan 21, 2020 | 12:24 PM

The president of Red Deer College says he’s confident the institution will be able to meet its future performance measures under the government’s new post-secondary funding model to be launched this spring.

Under the new model, a portion of government funding to 26 colleges, universities and polytechnics will be based on achieving key performance measures.

Dr. Peter Nunoda says from a taxpayer’s perspective, the new funding model to be implemented on Apr. 1, is exactly the space they need to be in.

“I have no concerns at all about meeting any performance measures that would be negotiated between ourselves and government,” Nunoda said Tuesday.

Nunoda says Monday’s announcement from the province came with no surprises.

“We had a bit of a heads-up on this earlier and new that the government’s intention was to move in this direction. In fact, the way in which the Minister has described deployment of the new program funding exactly aligns with our understanding, in so far as the government has committed to consultation with each institution around the performance metrics and those kinds of things.”

Nunuda says specific performance measures for RDC have yet to be determined.

“We really haven’t had that conversation within our leadership group yet,” says Nunoda. “There may be some things that are on the radar. One of the things that springs to mind immediately is our ability to provide local access to all credentials, to residents of central Alberta. So we’ll be very mindful of the places from which we are drawing our students.”

In addition to tying public investment to results, the government is also negotiating three-year funding agreements with post-secondary institutions. Nunoda is hopeful those agreements will lead to easier planning and greater funding predictability.

“One of the prevailing arguments in post-secondary education across this country has been a level of certainty around funding,” he explains. “I hope these investment management agreements bring a greater level of certainty. But of course, governments are always subject to the economic whims shall we speak, so there could be shifts, even within the three-year mandate of the investment management agreements.”

Nunoda says it’s important to note that greater participation in post-secondary education benefits the entire province economically.

“From a future-facing perspective, I think we are on the right track here,” he exclaims. “We’ll know fairly shortly when we’ll have the opportunity to meet (with the government). I expect this to be a very fulsome conversation with greater clarity given to us from the government’s perspective, and for the government to understand how unique Red Deer College/Red Deer University is within the post-secondary system in Alberta.”