Higher Education Minister says Alberta will help relocate 500 school staff at Athabasca University

Alberta's Minister of Higher Education has offered Athabasca University whatever it wants (including funding) to relocate 500 staff to the small town the school is named after. He said he would be happy to help, but said the school was not strengthened.

"We offered to provide any kind of help the university needed. They didn't ask for anything," Demetrios Nicolaides said in an interview over the weekend.

Nicolaides said his department had previously asked the university by June 30th for a concrete plan to expand the school's physical presence in the town of 2,800.

READ MORE: President of Athabasca University says demand for on-site staff in Alberta is declining and disastrous

"What I got June 30 did not include any financial claims, nor even the impact of financial information or costs related to travel (staff). he said. "So in the absence of details from the university, we have to step forward."

Nicolaides' comment balances school in the face of looming deadlines, with an increasingly confrontational conflict between him and university president Peter Scott.

Both sides have been debating the role and mission of Athabasca University for months.It is Canada's largest online university, hosting 40,000 students, with instructors and virtual schools across Canada and beyond. I am linking.

Nearly 40 years ago, we moved from Edmonton to Athabasca, 145 km north of the state capital, to provide distance learning and support local economic growth.

There is friction there.

Over time, the school's onsite staff decreased as more people worked remotely. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that change and now he has only a quarter of his 1,200 staff working on the ground.

Locals said he formed a lobby group a year ago to try to reverse this trend. In March, Prime Minister Jason Kenny promised to find ways to bring back more staff.

Nicolaides agrees, saying he's not reinventing school order, he's just trying to reverse the trend.

Scott openly agreed to disagree.

READ MORE: Alberta threatens funding cuts to Athabasca University in ongoing battle

On Friday, he said the plan was backward and self-defeating, made it difficult to recruit top talent, and required significant funding and resources. , professed to siphon time unnecessarily for learning.

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Scott said he wanted to help, but asked the school to become the town's main economic engine. I said it was unfair to ask.

"(This plan) does nothing for the university," Scott said in a video presentation to staff and students.

Scott also ironically encourages some university staff already working remotely in other rural areas to move to this rural area in the name of rural development. I mentioned being instructed.

Asked about the potentially self-defeating Rob-Peter-to-Pay-Pole aspects of the relocation plan, Nikolide said they were the kind of issues that needed to be hashed. It was — but said it was not possible.It will be done until the school has the details ready.

Nicolaides also dismissed criticism that his United Conservative government, with elections looming next spring, is pursuing the plan solely to attract votes in key rural areas.

"That is completely inaccurate," he said.

"I don't think you're looking for something new," he added. “People have worked in this town [for decades], providing quality academic programs to Alberta and other Canadians.

"Let's continue on the path of excellence."

Athabasca University president calls for onsite staffing demand in small Alberta town, backward and dilapidated

Scott said: He said the school had proposed a "talent management plan" in its June 30 submission. Site hubs, conference and research spaces. He said the officials did not reply.

Nicolaides, he replied in a letter on July 29, formally told the school board to begin work to bring more staff back to town by the end of August. ordered to promise to agree.

Scott said the government has stipulated that by 2025, 65% of his staff must live in Athabasca with officers. That means 500 people have to move.

Nicolaides also directed an implementation strategy to be submitted by the end of September after the board has approved the plan.

Otherwise the school risks losing $3.4 million a month in state subsidies, he says Nicolaides says. Scott notes that this is his quarter of the total funding, without which the school would likely fail.

In May Nicolaides replaced the chairman of the board with Calgary attorney Byron Nelson. urges staff, students and supporters to contact Nicolaides' office and listen to him.

READ MORE: Alberta University expresses mixed feelings about 2022 budget

The bottom line is that the two parties are looking for common ground, even though they can't seem to agree on even a basic definition.

Scott accused Nicolaides of micromanaging his school in an interview Friday. Nicolaides said it's more about responsible oversight than microcontrol.

Regarding the impending multi-million dollar budget cuts, Scott said:

"I had to immediately look it up in the dictionary to find out what the ultimatum meant."

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