Commission on Post-Secondary Education
 
Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour
Commission on Post-Secondary Education

 

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Context

Terms of Reference (pdf)

Nearly five decades ago, a Royal Commission on Higher Education (1962), chaired by John J. Deutsch, provided a number of important recommendations for the post-secondary sector in New Brunswick including the transfer of St. Thomas University to Fredericton, the establishment of a campus of the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, the consolidation of the numerous existing French-language institutions into a single university, and the restructuring of the Province's student financial assistance system.

There have been several other efforts since then to examine various aspects of the Province’s post-secondary sector, but none have explored it in as much detail, or recommended such fundamental changes:

• The Committee on Higher Education in the French Sector (1975), chaired by Louis LeBel, made additional recommendations relating to the Université de Moncton.
• The Commission on Excellence in Education, co-chaired by Aldéa Landry and James Downey, undertook a comprehensive overview of New Brunswick’s entire education system. To Live and Learn: The Challenge of Education and Training (1993) recommended a number of changes related to post-secondary education, training, and the promotion of lifelong learning.
• The Multi-Year Funding Plan for New Brunswick Universities (1999), chaired by Médard Collette, focused almost exclusively on university funding.
• Modernizing the New Brunswick Community College (2005), of a series of government-initiated consultations with local stakeholders, staff and students.

Revisions of the post-secondary sector have not been limited to New Brunswick. Six other provinces have launched post-secondary education commissions during the past three years:

• Quebec’s Parliamentary Committee on Education completed a review on Quality, Accessibility and Funding of Universities (2004), followed by a ministry-led review of the college system.
• Ontario’s independent commission under former Premier Bob Rae undertook a Postsecondary Education Review (2005), and British Columbia launched Campus 20/20 in August 2006.
• Three provinces – Newfoundland and Labrador (2005), Alberta (2006), and Saskatchewan (launched May 2006) – established ministry/legislative task forces to examine their post-secondary sectors.


In launching its own Commission on Post-Secondary Education, New Brunswick faces the added challenges of:

1) A relatively large and diverse post-secondary education and training system within a relatively small Province;
2) A commitment to provide equivalent levels of educational opportunities to two linguistic communities: francophone and anglophone;
3) A rapidly declining youth population.




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