Dr. Peter Nunoda, RDC President (Photo: RDC)

By Sheldon Spackman and Josh Hall

on hold for now

RDC’s university transition delayed by provincial review

Apr 28, 2020 | 4:59 PM

Plans for Red Deer College to become a university are on hold for the time being.

It was in March 2018 when the provincial NDP government gave RDC approval to pursue becoming a university and develop full degree programs.

On Feb. 21 of this year, the UCP government announced a comprehensive review of post-secondary education to “help co-create a long-term strategy and vision to deliver better outcomes for students and all Albertans.” The review includes an assessment of the governance structure of Alberta’s current post-secondary system, and assessment of how the system is meeting current and future needs, and may provide best value for public investment.

What this means for RDC is that they will not become Red Deer University this fall as was hoped.

“The transition has been put on hold until the system review is complete,” says Laurie Chandler, Advanced Education press secretary, in a brief e-mail statement.

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“The objective there is to look at what is going to be the nature of post-secondary education in Alberta into the future, including what kinds of institutions we need, and how we deliver programs,” Dr. Peter Nunoda, RDC President, says of the provincial review.

“All of that is under scrutiny and consideration right now,” he points out. “As far as the transition goes, we won’t get word on that until the review is complete sometime in the late fall.”

Despite the delay, Nunoda remains hopeful the transition will still occur.

“The government has indicated their support of our future as RDU (Red Deer University), and we’ll continue to have those conversations.”

Provincial officials anticipate a final strategy will be presented to government at the end of 2020, with implementation beginning in 2021.

In the meantime, RDC has submitted proposals to the province for two new degrees – a Bachelor of Education and a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences. If approved, these degrees could be launched as early as September 2021.

On Monday, RDC announced it is suspending applications for five of its existing programs.