The cash-strapped University of Calgary is eyeing major changes to its popular faculty of continuing education as part of a review that will culminate in the departure of its dean this spring.

One of the most high-profile of the university’s faculties, continuing education attracts more than 23,000 registrants each year who sign up for both credit and non-credit programs.

And as the U of C sharpens its knife to cut its annual spending by $50 million over the next four years as part of a massive budget restructuring and reinvestment into core areas of study, the faculty is among those being examined to ensure it is aligned with the university’s new four-year academic plan.

“We are talking about a potential restructuring,” confirms Ron Bond, VP (academic) and chairman of the steering group reviewing the role of the faculty. “But at this stage, the conversation is looking at planning rather than decisions.”

Bond was tight-lipped when asked about specific details or whether continuing education will exist as a faculty next year.

One definite factor will be the departure of Tom Keenan, who has served as faculty dean since 1993. Keenan, who also sits on the review committee, confirmed he will step down from the post at the end of June. “It was always kind of in the cards, and I never really intended to stay on beyond that 10 years,” he says.

“Actually, I wasn’t asked (to come back). Because there was an ongoing review and it wasn’t obvious that there would be a dean, they didn’t come to me and ask me.”

The U of C has embarked on an ambitious restructuring plan led by president Harvey Weingarten to target its resources in four strategic areas of academic strength, including energy and the environment; human behaviour, institutions and culture; technology and information; and health and wellness.

“I think the president is very influential in this, because he has committed himself to the academic plan,” says Keenan. “And in a way, continuing education is the first test . . they’ve done some shuffling around in some things, but this is the big thing. Continuing ed affects 23,000 people every year who have contact with us. So that’s why we’re trying to do it really carefully.”

A report prepared this past fall on the future of the U of C faculty by Judith Broida, the dean of continuing education at the University of Maryland, makes several recommendations and observations about the faculty, including:

* It should develop a strategy more complementary and supportive of the new academic plan. “The recent growth and development of the (faculty) has been one marked by autonomy or – as some would characterize it – isolationism,” the report says. “This silo structure has led to misconceptions about continuing education by other faculties – particularly about revenue
generation and income.” It’s no wonder, adds the report, that many other faculties are building their own continuing education programs and feel they should run them on their own.

* Continuing education (CE) has been “slow to respond” to the university’s changing mission, and by operating autonomously, “misalignment” has occurred.

* The faculty’s first degree, the Masters of Continuing Education, has gained a strong reputation outside campus, says the report, but “its internal success has been marginal.” Fewer faculty are choosing to participate in CE programs, and as a result the faculty has turned to off-campus instructors to offer programs in competition with other university units, the report says.

* Non-credit programs should be centralized within the faculty to reduce duplication with other existing programs. In one case, noted the consultant, two different university departments advertised the same course in a newspaper.

* For credit courses, the department should
partner with academic faculties providing administrative infrastructure and program support.

* The faculty’s name should be changed to reflect its role and focus.

Keenan says Broida’s report is one of several being studied by the review committee. “The status of these reports is they are just that – reports,” he says. “Certainly in the short term, nothing is going to change. In the long-term, there are possibilities of doing it differently.”

Keenan stresses that the review will not affect programs now being offered by the faculty. The current calendar is effective until the end of June, and learners involved in longer-term courses will complete their programs under a “business-as-usual” scenario, he added.

While not wishing to remark on any specific program changes, Bond says the faculty’s Masters of Continuing Education degree in Workplace Learning may be relocated to the Faculty of Education, consistent with a recommendation in the Broida report.

“Most places that have continuing study programs like UBC or Simon Fraser use a mixed model,” Bond notes. “There’s typically a central unit that does some of the non-credit work, and there’s also work done under the auspices of individual faculties. So that’s the model that we’re likely to go with – the model we’re trying to refine and clarify right now.”

Bond says it is unlikely a new dean will be appointed to replace Keenan, who has served two five-year terms.

“There will certainly be a leader of the unit, but whether that person will be a dean of the faculty of continuing education depends very much on what the fate is of the various proposals that are in the process.”

Keenan, a regular columnist for Business Edge, says he anticipates returning to teaching after his term concludes. And he believes there will always be a strong continuing education component at the U of C.

“We are the major link that brings a lot of people in contact with the university that would never go to university otherwise,” he says.

“I strongly feel we need continuing education, and need it done the best way we possibly can. I have spent 10 years building it to one of the best units in the country, and now my time to do that is over, and the university needs to guide it in whatever new direction it wants to guide it. It has to be looking at the needs of the learners . . . we always have to be sensitive to what the market is really asking for, and how they want to do it.”