Minister probed on education during city visit
By Lethbridge Herald on May 19, 2022.
Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald
apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
During a visit to Lethbridge Wednesday, Alberta’s Minister of Advanced Education answered various questions from the media regarding multiple topics related to post-secondary education.
When asked about tuition increases for post-secondary students, Demetrios Nicolaides said there are additional dollars in Budget 2022 earmarked to support student financial assistance.
“There’s $12 million over three years to boost our existing scholarships and there’s $15 million over three years to create a new bursary for low income students.”
He said they are finalizing the design and development of that bursary.
“We’ve also provided additional supports in terms of providing more flexibility around student loans and other measures and when it comes to tuition I think it’s important to keep in mind that tuition today for the average undergraduate tuition in Alberta is below the national average,” said Nicolaides.
When asked if the government had anything in place to help students enter the high-demand fields of study, after announcing an investment to create seats for those programs in regards of affordability he said there is two parts to that answer.
He said the first part is dealing with available seats, for if there is no space for them to get admitted, that is a barrier on itself.
“I think we can all agree, we don’t want to see a student who wants to go into nursing, health care aide, aviation, film, television or whatever it is, not be able to get into that program right here in Alberta and have to go somewhere else,” said Nicolaides.
He said that on the affordability side he had already mentioned the ways they have set aside some money from Budget 2022.
But NDP Critic for Advanced Education David Eggen disagrees with that and in a statement he said that unfortunately, decisions made by the UCP have led to record rates of young people and post-secondary students leaving the province.
“This government’s policies are leaving Albertans behind. If not for harmful choices made by the UCP, these students could have been in career training now, with options available to them sooner. People could have been graduating from programs and building their lives and communities today, allowing southern Alberta to thrive,” reads the statement.
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