$78 million being wasted, according to provincial students group
Posted Feb 20, 2013 10:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
With the provincial budget set to come down in about two weeks, the Alberta Students Executive Council is suggesting ways to get rid of tens of millions of dollars in wasted money.
The council says after analyzing just one semester of full-time coursework, $78 million is wasted on costs associated with retaking unnecessary courses during transfers.
Director of Policy Jenna Backer says that’s actually a conservative estimate:
“We can’t really measure the cost to the workforce, with the delayed program completion, students taking longer to get into the workforce,” she said.
Backer suggests there has be more cooperation and collaboration between schools so that curriculums are more similar and credits are applicable when transferring schools.
“Engineering, for example is a program that in theory could be and should be the same at any campus…If those are the kinds of courses that aren’t transferring, that’s something that needs to be changed, so if there needs to be standardization, then let’s create that standardization.”
She added getting the conversation going with the provincial government is one of the first steps that has to be made.
