‘Polytechnic’ title is next step in school’s evolution

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on January 8, 2025.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman President and chief executive officer of Lethbridge Polytechnic Brad Donaldson will be answering questions that have come up regarding the school's change from Lethbridge College, during the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affair session on Thursday.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

President and chief executive officer of Lethbridge Polytechnic Brad Donaldson will be answering some of the questions that have come up regarding the change from Lethbridge College to Lethbridge Polytechnic, during the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affair session Thursday at the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization.

Donaldson says the one question he has been asked multiple times since the change is what, exactly, is the difference between a college and a polytechnic ?

“Polytechnic programming is designed towards careers and skills, so graduates leave a polytechnic ready to enter or re-enter the workforce if they come back for re-training,” says Donaldson.

He says the programs are specific to certain careers, whether they are in healthcare, justice or trades for example.

“Trades programming is under legislation specific to polytechnics; they have to deliver trades programs. Colleges can and most due, so that is one distinction,” says Donaldson.

He adds that the polytechnic designation is career oriented, and it also has a significant component of applied research. He explains that applied research is doing research that helps industry and businesses today.

“We are not looking for the next quantum particle physics solution, we are looking for what is a good practice for industry to improve their capabilities, whether that be in welding with a welding technique or what they need to know about environmental sciences,” says Donaldson.

He says in this region they are focusing particularly on agriculture, like how to make the best use of water and the best use of grain storage, which improves the yield and productivity in farms.

“The Polytechnic is a combination of career-oriented programming and applied research and the applied research is translated into the learning in the classroom as well, so it ensures that our graduates are leaving the polytechnic with directly applicable skills in the workplace today,” says Donaldson.

He explains that Lethbridge College did very little applied research five years ago, but that has changed in recent years by working with various research funding organizations, both provincially and federally and now they are in the top 10 in Canada.

“That growth in applied research aligned with our programming says we meet the definition of polytechnic, so we asked the government to recognize that, and they did,” says Donaldson.

He says this process was years in the making, which was precipitated by the fact that in Alberta there were two polytechnics, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. They were recognized under the post-secondary education act as polytechnic institutions and between 2019 and 2021 Red Deer College became Red Deer Polytechnic, Grand Prairie Regional College became Northwestern Polytechnic.

“That was the first indicator that institutions were recognizing their positioning to be recognized as polytechnics and that cause the board of governors and the leadership to at Lethbridge College to recognize the shift in the landscape of the recognition of polytechnics in 2021,” says Donaldson.

Because the Lethbridge College was already “behaving” as a polytechnic, Donaldson says it was a matter of bringing that argument to the government and creating an understanding with the government and the University of Lethbridge.

“The government wanted to make sure that we had proper alignment, that we were not going to cause unnecessary duplication of programming between the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Polytechnic,” says Donaldson.

Both institutions came to that agreement and signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which prompted the government to approve the Lethbridge Polytechnic designation in 2024.

Donaldson explains that the University of Lethbridge was extremely supportive of the Lethbridge Polytechnic designation and now they are working on collaborating to offer joined programming, as they already do with Nursing.

In terms of how long the process was to achieve the polytechnic designation, Donaldson says it was not an overnight success.

“It was about three to four years journey to get the relationships built and the understanding within the government. Minister changed during that time, so there was a re-education and understanding with the new ministry and here we are,” says Donaldson.

When talking about any changes to tuition fees or any other charges made through the polytechnic designation, Donaldson says there are no changes.

“Becoming a polytechnic doesn’t change the funding that we receive from the government,” adds Donaldson.