The Athabasca University campus with the city of Athabasca and the Athabasca River in the background. Blaise McMullin
The Alberta government has backed off its threat to cut funding to Athabasca University unless the school agrees to relocate hundreds of employees to the small town that shares its name, with the minister responsible for post-secondary education signaling he is ready to negotiate a proposed purpose of residence.
Alberta wants AU, an online university with about 40,000 students, to support Athabasca’s economy by moving employees to the rural region. In a July 29 letter, the province requested that 65 percent of the institution’s staff be based in Athabasca by the 2024-2025 school year, according to AC President Peter Scott. That would force AU to move 500 jobs to the community, in addition to the 295 employees already in the region, he said.
Mr. Scott opposed an earlier request by Alberta AU to draw up a plan to strengthen the local economy by attracting employees to Athabasca, which has about 2,805 residents. The July letter escalated the battle; Mr Scott said the government’s new proposal linked $41 million in annual funding to the residency target.
But Demetrios Nicolaides, Alberta’s minister of higher education, told The Globe and Mail that the 65 percent residency target is flexible.
“It’s a proposal,” Mr Nicolaides said on Tuesday. If the AU deems some of the goals in Alberta’s proposed funding agreement, known as an investment management agreement, to be “unachievable,” the government would be willing to “talk about it [and] review them.”
Asked what counter-offer would be sufficient, Mr Nicolaides said: “I would really like to see at least senior management and administrative staff based in the city, as has been the case for the last few decades.”
The AU website lists nine heads. Mr Scott, in a video statement on August 2, said the government’s July letter ordered seven members of the AU executive team to work full-time at Athabasca until March 31, 2025. It was unclear how many administrative staff would be affected. a compromise.
The institution welcomed Mr Nicolaides’ softer stance. “The AU will be thrilled to return to the consultative relationship it has had with the government for years,” Christine Williamson, AU spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Asked about Mr Nicolaides’ demand for the “bare minimum”, she said: “We are grateful for the opportunity to start discussions with the minister.” She added that the AU looked forward to working with the minister “to find a mutually acceptable way forward “.
Mr. Nicolaides noted that the school originally had until June 30 to provide the province with a plan to attract and retain more staff in the rural region, which is about 145 kilometers north of Edmonton.
The minister’s explanation for the subsequent residency quota numbers was that the school’s response fell short of the government’s expectations, so Alberta had to “fill in the blanks to the best of our ability.” Mr. Scott said Alberta has given the AU until Sept. 30 to sign off on the proposed funding deal or risk losing $3.4 million in monthly funding.
The government’s proposal for 65 per cent occupancy would be a dramatic change – both for the school and for the region. AU said 295 of its employees currently live in the region, making up about 24 percent of its 1,200-strong workforce. The share of AU employees based in the region peaked at 44 percent in 2001, when 368 of AU’s 844 employees lived in the community, according to lobby group Keep Athabasca In Athabasca. The group’s statistics, provided by the city’s mayor, only go back to 2001. The group’s figures show that the local number of AU employees reached 520 in 2010, representing 36 percent of the university’s total workforce.
AU, which has always focused on distance learning, moved to Athabasca from Edmonton in the mid-1980s. It accelerated its “near-virtual” strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic, which also fueled local lobbying efforts to increase the number of AU staff in the community. Ms. Williamson, the school spokeswoman, said AU employees in the Athabasca area who work online were recently given the option to work remotely, with a hybrid on-campus option, or to work full-time in person. About 92 percent of those employees chose to stay remote, she said.
AU is now redesigning its physical space in Athabasca to accommodate hybrid and collaborative work, Ms. Williamson said. The site is expected to be usable in October.
“All employees in the area and those willing to travel to Athabasca for team meetings … will have access to our buildings,” she said.
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