Memorial University today launched an information website to act as a resource hub during the ongoing provincial Public Post-Secondary Education Review.
The site can be viewed here.
In spring 2018, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced that it would appoint a committee of experts to undertake a system-wide review of the province’s post-secondary education system.
This review is meant to ensure Memorial and the College of the North Atlantic are well-positioned to meet the needs of students well into the future, address emerging labour market demands and continue to contribute to the province’s economic growth.
The website released today was developed to provide additional information and context about Memorial University for the reviewers, the university community and interested citizens.
Website highlights
Memorial’s Post-Secondary Education Review resource website includes information about how Memorial University has changed since the provincial government’s last review in 2004-05, an overview of developments in key strategic areas and an index of important information related to the four terms of reference for the current review: effectiveness, sustainability, accountability and accessibility.
The Governance section of the website includes a detailed listing of how Memorial meets national and international standards, including information about the more than a dozen different accreditations achieved and maintained by faculties and schools. This section also gives a good overview of the bicameral system of governance and the many layers of oversight and reporting that exist to support the transparency and accountability of the university.
The Administration and Finance section features detailed charts that show how Memorial’s tuition model compares to other Canadian universities; trends over the past decade in the grant-in-aid-of-tuition from the provincial government; and information on how the university’s operating budget is spent.
In the Teaching and Learning section, the site highlights many of the services and supports available to students and shows how the demographics of the student body have evolved in the past decade.
More and more of Memorial’s students are coming from outside of Canada, particularly in the graduate student population, which continues to grow at a historic pace.
This demonstrates Memorial’s attractiveness to international scholars who contribute significantly to the research intensity of our institution; this in turn brings research funding to Newfoundland and Labrador and supports the province’s focus on attracting immigrants to make this place their home.
These shifting demographics have a direct impact on the increasing costs of providing excellent teaching, learning and research opportunities for graduate and international students that have been managed, to date, without additional funding.
The website also features detailed information about the Student experience, Infrastructure development and challenges, the growing Research enterprise and the role of Ppublic engagement.
Content on the website will continue to be updated and refined over the coming weeks.
Review schedule
The provincial review is currently in the consultation phase and meetings have been held at various sites around the province. It is anticipated that the panel will be reaching out shortly to various groups at Memorial’s St. John’s campus for meetings and that a public session will be held on-site over the winter.
Once that information is available, it will be shared with the university community and made available on the province’s review website. Submissions to the panel can also be made by following the links on that website.
