B.C. suspends new degree proposals

Six-month moratorium on new post-secondary programs designed to give province and schools time to re-assess, minister says

The B.C. government is slamming the brakes on new degree programs offered by the province's universities and colleges, imposing a six- month moratorium that has caught educators by surprise.

Since 2001, the province has approved 290 new degree programs, reflecting emerging technology, fresh fields of study and growing job markets. There are new opportunities to earn degrees in hospital management, digital media, genome science and even a Master of Arts in "sustainable leisure management."

But Moira Stilwell, Minister of Advanced Education, said in an interview Tuesday the government wants to make sure post-secondary institutions are offering programs that are regionally co-ordinated and tied to future labour- market demands.

"We have just been through a period of rapid capital expansion and we have probably granted an unprecedented number of new degree programs," she said. But Ms. Stilwell said she wants to put things on hold to assess if all those new offerings meet the provincial government's goals for a knowledge-based economy in the future.

"It's like hygiene," she said. "It is a temporary, strategic pause to assess how we are doing."

The freeze was not prompted by any specific concerns, Ms. Stilwell said, but the bureaucracy can now be redirected, for a time, to better planning.

New degrees will need to reflect the province's economic agenda, she said, and the review could result in more control by government to ensure regional balance.

"Responsiveness for future prosperity is one of the things we are really interested in," she said.

A letter announcing the moratorium was sent earlier this month to the province's post-secondary institutions, providing just a few weeks' notice before it comes into effect.

"The temporary moratorium on new degree program applications is intended to give the ministry an opportunity to clarify issues related to system co- ordination, linkages to labour market demand and forecasting, and to ensure government and post-secondary institutions work in partnership to collectively achieve public policy goals," the letter, dated Aug. 5, states.

Cindy Oliver, president of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of B.C. , said she was shocked to learn of the moratorium. "It's unfortunate. New fields emerge all the time that need to be addressed if we want to keep current and that's hard to do with a moratorium," she said. If B.C. schools don't keep up, students may look elsewhere for the programs they want. "I don't want to see that innovation stymied."

Ms. Oliver said the decision was poorly communicated and badly timed - many post-secondary educators are away on summer vacation and now have little chance to get new proposals submitted before the Aug. 25 cutoff.

Allan Cahoon, president of Royal Roads University, said the moratorium sends a clear signal to the post-secondary sector that the government wants better co- ordination between institutions on program offerings.

"From a system standpoint, it's a positive move," he said. "It gives us a chance to think of the criteria and it will be an incentive for us to talk to each other a little more."

Under the current system, he said, there is little encouragement for post- secondary institutions to work co-operatively. "The ministry has been communicating for the last year and a half that it wants us to collaborate. ... Maybe as institutions, we weren't motivated enough."