Author: Doug Rutherford

In my last post, I mentioned that there are two criteria for de facto accreditation for universities in Canada. Institutional membership in AUCC is one, while legislation permitting the conferring of degrees by the province or territory is the other. While the first is largely out of reach, pending several things happening, the second already exists.

Three years ago, the Yukon College Act was amended to meet several of the other criteria that AUCC called for in case they would be willing to drop the two criteria of 500 university FTEs and the more than 50% university program rules. At this time, YTG granted Yukon College the right to grant degrees.

Also, Yukon College students actually can receive one of several degrees, although these are not granted by the college itself, but rather, through reciprocal agreements with other universities. For example, a Bachelor of Education or Bachelor of Social Work degree has been available through the college, conferred by the University of Regina in both cases. A Bachelor of Circumpolar Studies is available, conferred through the University of the Arctic, a consortium of universities and colleges in North America and Europe. A Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Conservation Sciences is conferred through the University of Alberta, and, a Masters of Public Administration degree can be received through the University of Alaska Southeast.

The degree alternatives are provided at a reasonable tuition and are popular choices for students. And, since these are overseen through existing, accredited universities, a recognized degree is the outcome for students who complete the program, a possibility that may not exist for students of a new Yukon university. No, these choices may not match the requirements of everyone; however, is meeting everyone’s needs actually possible for a reasonable investment?

Also, remember that a university degree is not the only outcome in postsecondary education. This is where the College provides a valuable resource. Programs in technologies, trades, practical nursing, upgrading, etc., meet the requirement of the majority of students who are not seeking a university degree as the result of their education. Many graduates are currently employed in good jobs here at home. Setting up a funding-competitive institution, or worse, allowing a funding-competitive institution to overwhelm the existing College for the glory of issuing degrees will simply put a poorly considered campaign promise over the needs of the majority of Yukoners.

In conclusion (yes, it took me a bit to get here), I personally would like to have a university here. I am an academic, and if I didn’t, it would be more than a little odd, after all. However, the costs and the potential results could be both financially and educationally disastrous, leaving us a legacy we may well do without…

This second consideration does have some relationship to part one. Let’s consider the question of cost from another perspective: is it better to redefine Yukon College to become a university or to start a completely different institution and what are the ramifications? Most of us quickly appreciate the first ramification, namely, a far greater cost to build a new university infrastructure. However, for a specific and important reason, it is probably better to build a new university rather than changing the College.

To appreciate this, put yourself in the shoes of a university student. You’ve just spent $60-80,000 for a four-year degree program and have been handed a piece of paper for your efforts. What is that piece of paper worth?

We can all accept that a degree from one institution carries more weight that from others. Having an engineering degree from, say MIT, is certainly more prestigious than one from a smaller, lesser known school. Reputation alone is not the only factor. Is the university that issued your degree actually even accredited? In short, did the piece of paper you received have any other value than the snazzy bond paper it’s printed on?

In Canada, there is no formal accreditation program for universities; however, there is a de facto standard. This is provincial/territorial legislation granting the institution the ability to confer degrees and institutional membership in the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). Membership is based on a broad range of criteria, including experience and credentials of your faculty, quality of programs, library and other reference holdings, facilities, etc. However, another membership criterion is that the institution must offer a full program or programs of undergraduate and/or graduate studies. Offering a limited number of degree specializations, such as offering only the suggested concentration of a degree in climate change, means that the institution would never be accredited and that their degrees would largely be seen as having little more credibility than those issued by diploma mills that sell you a diploma for a fee: no class work or assignments, but no real degree, either.

Another important criterion is that the institution must have had 500 full time students or their equivalent (FTE) in university programs for the last two years. Yukon College has a bit over 500 FTEs, but only a small number are in university programs. These would be students in the Northern Studies Diploma and existing degree programs. One former requirement that AUCC required, and it is difficult to determine if it still exists, is that more than 50% of your programs must be university ones. This was in place two years ago when the then president unsuccessfully discussed membership with AUCC. Also, it means that the institution must open and accept students with the proviso that they will be committing the first two years of their education to an unaccredited university. If it fails to get accredited for one reason or another until after you finish your degree, you have a piece of paper for your efforts and maybe not much more.

Given the broad range of programs covered by the college, the 50% rule would mean having a slightly more than equitable increase in the number of university programs offered. In my last posting, I discussed the costs associated with offering a broad range of degrees and specializations. For accreditation purposes, these expensive options would be a necessity. However, starting from scratch and not having to have more university than non-university programs may make membership easier than expanding the role of the College. It will, however, require a substantial infrastructure investment to create a new institution and doing so could easily fall into the $150-250 million bracket.

Opening another institution has other implications though. The college has university transfer courses that allow students to do up to the first two years of their degree locally and finish at another institution (the College motto is “Start here, go anywhere,” after all). Given the amount of competition for students, it would probably be safe to assume that much of what happened in Prince George would probably occur here. Since the university course option existed with the formation of the University of Northern BC, the College of New Caledonia stopped offering university transfer courses as a cost reduction strategy. Doing so here would mean that the lower cost tuition option students have of doing courses at Yukon College would probably be removed at some point. Given the heavy subsidization from the government that two separate institutions would require, it is a good guess that YTG would probably act very quickly to set this in place.

Part 3, and probably the last one, to follow…

One of the most poorly considered campaign platform ideas recently reared its head this when the Yukon Party announced its desire to create the first university in the north in Yukon. I have no problem with the general idea; however, practical application of this raises substantial questions. And, since no cost estimates were attached to the promise, I have to wonder if any planning whatsoever went into this announcement.

The first consideration: what client group is a university intended to serve? If it is aimed to provide an alternative for Yukon students, which of those students will be the target group? What programs will you offer, and which departments and their various specializations will be offered. For example, if you choose to offer a Bachelor of Science degree, which departments will be offered? This list could include Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Geology, Psychology, etc. And, should you choose to offer Geology, what specializations within the discipline will you teach? These could include geochemistry, seismology, physical geology, geomorphology, etc.

These questions must be answered early in the game since their answers will dictate how many faculty members, what faculty members, what lab facilities and analytical equipment, how many lab technicians and what expansions to the library will be required. The university departmentsI’ve been in, including one of geology and several of archaeology, usually had a faculty of 20 or more, earning approximately $150,000 plus benefits at the current levels of pay in Canadian universities for a full professor, or approximately $120,000 plus benefits for an Assistant Professor.

Lab resources, such as analytical equipment, are also expensive. Sticking with geology, an ICP-MS for analyzing mineral contents, a basic high precision analysis tool, is over $700,000 to purchase. The technician running the last one I worked with had a PhD and earned a very good salary. A scanning electron microscope costs several hundred thousand dollars and uses $50,000 of argon as part of its function each semester.  Lab equipment, as you may have deduced, is incredibly expensive. This will also need separate labs in which to run them and increased specialized staffing for their function and the capital costs for setting these facilities would involve an incredible amount of money.

Keep in mind that to be credible, a university could not just offer one department so these costs will be multiplied for, say, chemistry and biology departments as well. Analytical equipment for either of these disciplines is equally expensive to buy and to use.

Are we doing this to provide an alternative for Yukon students? This is an important philosophical question, as it points to what we will be subsidizing. Remember that tuitions do not cover the entire cost of running a postsecondary institution. For example, Yukon College tuitions last year amounted to approximately 4% of income. Granted, most universities raise more of their income through tuitions and fees but do so through having substantially higher costs. Tuition at most universities in Canada run approximately $6,000 per year for a full time student, compared to about $3,200 for full time tuition the College presently charges.

It’s also been a while since I’ve seen the number of Yukoners who actually leave the territory to go to university outside. The Department of Education did maintain a watch on this number. The last time I saw it, there were fewer than 300 potential university students. And, having been young myself and having had the opportunity to leave home rather than attend local postsecondary institutions, I was one of the “couldn’t wait to leave” group. It is reasonable to assume for just the “exotic” reason alone, not all of the potential students would attend a Yukon university. You must also remember the range of subjects available and many potential students would be taking programs not offered locally.

The alternative is to offer programs in hopes to attract students from outside. This opens a contentious issue. Do we want to subsidize the education of large numbers of non-Yukon students? When you are potentially making the Department of Education one of the largest budget items for the territorial government, should this be consciously done for the benefit of people outside your tax base? Any government considering do so should be prepared for a fair amount of fiery rhetoric on this topic alone.

I’ll move on to more reasons in Part 2 sometime tomorrow. Keep in mind that, other than some practical issues, I have nothing against the concept of a new university here, other than the minor problem that it just won’t work in practical application…