Increasing partnerships between business and Alberta’s post-secondary schools are producing record enrolment and facility expansion at higher-learning institutions this fall.

The growing alliance between the private sector and universities, technical institutes and community colleges also is generating unprecedented economic benefits for Edmonton and Calgary, academic and economic experts say.

“Scarcely a month or two goes by without there being a new partnership announced between some institution . . . and a local, national or global company,” says Jim Edwards, president and chief executive of Economic Development of Edmonton.

When it comes to the engines that are driving the economy of the greater Edmonton region, he adds, “I would say the University of Alberta is probably the chief among them.”

Illustration by Grant McKenzie, Business Edge


In southern Alberta, the University of Calgary and other educational institutions “are just so critical to the quality of life and all the other (economic) clusters” in the city, says Georgine Ulmer, president and chief executive of Promoting Calgary Inc.

Figures from the U of C show it is the fourth-largest employer in Calgary, directly employing 5,340 people and contributing about $620 million annually to the city.

Outside-sponsored research at the university has doubled during the last five years and reached $135 million last year – putting the university in eighth spot overall in Canada, says Ron Bond, U of C’s vice-president academic. “We are one of Canada’s leading research-intensive universities now, by almost any measure you care to use.”

To the north, U of A is Edmonton’s fifth-largest employer. Last year, the university also received nearly $213 million in external research funding, creating more than 11,000 jobs in the Edmonton region and Alberta, says Sandra Halme, university media relations manager. “We are the leader in the country for (attracting) the most outside research funding.”

Brian Silzer, associate vice-president and registrar at U of A, says projected enrolment this fall will top 30,000 fulltime-equivalent students, compared with 25,000 five years ago.

To meet the demands of an increasingly high-tech economy, U of A has started construction on a new engineering research facility and a new engineering teaching/learning centre. Both are scheduled to open next January. “It’s one area of our campus that’s just experiencing dynamic growth,” Silzer says.

At Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, total enrolment for the coming year is expected to be at least 14,400 fulltime-equivalent students. That’s up more than 12 per cent from five years ago, says Terry Flannigan, NAIT’s vice-president of advancement.

“But it’s not the kind of growth that this institution could have if we had the space. We’re just crammed,” he says.

NAIT has partnered with giant computer maker Compaq on a new $50-million, 220,000-sq.-ft. centre for information and communication technologies, scheduled to open in September 2002.

Thanks to intensive fund-raising with the private sector, NAIT now receives less than 50 per cent of its operating funding from government, compared with 69 per cent in 1993-94, Flannigan says. “Any institute that sits around, waiting for government to give them additional dollars, is going to be left behind.”

Grant MacEwan College has grown by 52 per cent since opening its city centre campus in 1993, says Melanie Busby, director of marketing and communications. A further five-per-cent growth is expected this year, bringing the number of students taking credit courses to about 14,000.

“Our increase in applications this year is higher than it’s ever been in our history,” Busby says. “Basically, our campuses are at capacity. We’ve run out of space.”

The space crunch is also putting the squeeze on the University of Calgary, which is expecting more than 27,000 fulltime-equivalent students. Provincial data shows that U of C accounted for 26 per cent of the growth in Alberta’s entire post-secondary education system between 1994-95 and 1999-2000, Bond says.

The significant growth, while welcome, also means U of C has had to move 48 trailers on to campus to provide extra teaching and learning room. “We’re just stretched mercilessly (by) the growth,” Bond says.

Several new facilities – most aimed at serving the new knowledge-based economy – should help ease U of C’s space crunch. They include the $32.5-million Information and Communications Technology Building, opening this fall. It will create 1,130 new student spaces in electrical and computer engineering and computer science by 2004-05.

Also rising on U of C’s campus is the new $18.5-million Calgary Centre for Innovative Technology, a multi-disciplinary research facility. And advanced planning is well under way on a new $110-million Health Research Innovation Centre at the university’s Foothills Hospital site.

The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology predicts it will have about 14,000 fulltime-equivalent students this year, compared with about 8,800 in 1995-96. The “head count” includes provincially regulated programs, as well as customized training done for industry.

SAIT, which expects to double the number of students it serves by 2010, has invested $176 million over the last three years in new and renovated facilities. New buildings include the “Heart of the Campus” complex, the renovated Heritage Hall and a new student residence tower – all opening this fall. The investment includes $12 million in curriculum upgrades for online learning, says Keith Pedersen, SAIT’s vice-president of administration.

All the new and renovated facilities have been wired with high-speed computer networks.

More than 1,500 SAIT students will be enrolled this year in programs where using a laptop computer to learn is mandatory, Pedersen says. “They’re actually using the software that they’ll be using when they’re out in business or industry.”

Mount Royal College in Calgary, which expects more than 11,000 students this year enrolled in credit courses, has embarked on $150 million in capital projects. They include a major expansion to the Lincoln Park campus’s west wing complex, including a new classroom and a new office building to be ready by next fall.

To serve the needs of employers, MRC has added a business and information applied degree program, along with a new undergraduate degree in nursing offered in conjunction with Athabasca University.

Providing top-quality post-secondary opportunities is crucial to regional economies, especially in a global economy with fierce competition for the new knowledge-based industries and highly skilled workers, the experts say.

“It’s one of the important elements that companies look for” when deciding to locate in a community, says Promoting Calgary’s Ulmer.

Despite Alberta’s prosperity, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the only provinces that have increased overall post-secondary funding in the period 1992-93 to 2000-01, according to a study by the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

The forecast for post-secondary enrolment is to continue expanding at least to 2010, notes MRC’s Eifert. “So we’re going to need some additional support from the government to be able to offer those extra seats over the next several years.”