The provincial government’s college education review recommended that University College of the North (UCN) should strengthen its policy governance, work to provide more contract training activities and increase graduation rates, among other things.
The section of Higher Education Strategy Associates’ (HESA) 200-page review report that deals with UCN covers approximately 40 pages and looks at institutional governance, programs, student success rates, financial management, stakeholder observations and plans for improvement.
The complete list of recommendations to improve the institution includes making sure that UCN offers the right mix of university and college programs, that it plays as strong a role as it can in co-ordinating economic development activities in Northern Manitoba and that it consults with stakeholders to ensure that it is taking their training needs into consideration. HESA’s report also says that UCN should reinvigorate the entrepreneurial spirit that enabled it to bring in nearly $3 million in revenue from contract training activities in the 2007-2008 school year and that it should work together with other post-secondary institutions in a way that helps them meet northern training needs in the best way possible. Other recommendations include strengthening its pipeline of potential students, allowing its facilities to be used by other organizations and for the province to create voting and non-voting members of the Governing Council, as well as clarifying the role of the Council of Elders to focus on ensuring that the institution embraces Aboriginal and northern culture and values, rather than serving as a third decision-making body alongside the Governing Council and the Learning Council.
“University College of the North welcomes the colleges review and accepts its recommendations,” said UCN president and vice-chancellor Doug Lauvstad in a provincial government news release. “UCN looks forward to working cooperatively with government and other colleges to help strengthen applied trades and technical-vocational education in Manitoba.”
In the 2015-16 school year, UCN had a full-time equivalent enrolment of 604 university and 564 college students for a total of of 1,168. University program enrolment has grown 47 per cent since the 2011-12 school year, while college student enrolment grew 17 per cent over the same period and overall enrolment by 31 per cent. The number of college graduates in 2015 was 266, 33 higher than in 2010, with all of the intervening years being lower. The number of university graduates, including bachelor of nursing graduates, has doubled over the same period, from 56 in 2010 to 114 in 2015.
UCN’s annual budget has increased from about $25 million in the 2005-6 school year to about $47 million in 2015-16, with the amount it receives from the provincial government rising 101 per cent over that period. Revenue from tuition and student fees has gone up 79 per cent in the same period, while contract training revenue has dropped from a high of $2.9 million in 2007-8 to $615,000 in 2015-16, the lowest over the 10 years. The three years before that were the only other ones in the 10-year period when contract training revenue was less than $1 million annually. Together, the provincial grant and tuition account for about 80 to 85 per cent of UCN’s revenues. Salaries and employee benefits account for about 65 per cent of UCN’s expenses and although it has had a surplus in nine of the 10 years the report examined, totalling nearly $10 million combined, current projections have it in a deficit position of $1.2 million this school year, $1.8 million in 2018-19 and $2.3 million in 2019-20.
“As UCN recognizes that it is not able to run a deficit, management decisions may be needed to reduce expenditure,” notes the report, adding that, since no new programs are planned, UCN is focusing on increasing enrolment in its current programs.
Since 2005-6, the number of college-level programs have dropped from 44 to 28, and its certificate program graduation rates have ranged from a low of 49 per cent to a high of 76 per cent, while the rate in diploma programs has varied from as low as 40 per cent to as high as 67 per cent.
As the number of FTE students has fluctuated at UCN, so has the cost of educating them, from an average of $28,000 per student at The Pas campus when enrolment was highest to $48,000 per student when it was lowest. The Thompson campus has spent an average ranging from about $21,000 per year when FTE enrolment was highest, in 2005-6, to $52,300 in 2015-16, when FTE enrolment was near its lowest point.
Within individual programs, per-student costs have ranged from as much as $200,000 for the dental assisting program in 2015-16 to as little as $10,000 per student for part-time general studies and pre-employment programs in Cross Lake, though the cost for the same program in St. Theresa Point, when there were only two students was $78,000 per student.
“UCN is committed to working with the government of Manitoba and other colleges to address the review’s recommendations, said Governing Council chair Tom Goodman in a UCN news release. “UCN will make changes to strengthen our responsiveness to communities and to industry and will make the changes necessary to ensure that we continue to provide the highest quality education to northerners. We will be taking immediate steps to begin to implement these recommendations.”
HESA said many people it talked to about UCN felt that it was becoming university-focused and saturating the market with people with the same skills by offering the same programs year after year. Some stakeholders also felt that UCN was unresponsive. However, the review noted that that changing economy of Northern Manitoba means it is no longer certain that the region needs college education more than university education and said that it is students themselves that are driving the change. The majority of UCN students are Indigenous and the rate was higher in university programs in the 2015-16 school year at 74 per cent than it was in the college programs, where it was 68 per cent.
“This report makes clear that UCN has much work to do,” said Lauvstad in the UCN news release. “UCN is a young institution that has grown quickly since it was first established in 2004. We need to consider the findings of the review, and take the necessary steps to ensure that we can continue to support social and economic development in the north.”
“We thank the consultants, Higher Education Strategy Associates, for their careful and thorough assessment of UCN,” said academic and research vice-president Dan Smith. “Their thoughtful and inclusive approach ensured that the report reflects their expert understanding of UCN’s context and the pressures it faces.”
For the province’s colleges as a whole, the review recommends increasing participation rates and graduation rates for all students, establishing a performance-based funding formula, developing college-specific mandate letters, increasing rural and regional co-ordination to meet local needs, streamlining the program approval process, introducing an external quality assurance mechanism and focusing capital funding priorities to make strategic improvements.
“The Manitoba Colleges Education Review highlights several opportunities to enhance and modernize college education in our province by building on existing strengths,” said Education and Training Minister Ian Wishart. “Many of its recommendations are in line with this government’s strategic direction, and we look forward to working with stakeholders to create a more robust education system for all Manitobans.”
