Yesterday afternoon the province released Budget 2024 (A Responsible Plan for a Growing Province).

Below are key points from Budget 2024 in relation to Advanced Education and, specifically, MacEwan University. Importantly, we were happy to see that there has been no change to the profiling of our School of Business building with $125M retained and $75M flowing over the next 3 years. Our operating grant remains intact at $104.37M (the same as last year), the mental health grant is also intact at $430K (the same as last year), and the grant for students with disabilities stayed the same at $873K. The Targeted Enrolment Expansion and Capital Maintenance Renewal funding experienced decreases in this budget and we’ll better understand this impact over the weeks ahead.

Key points from the budget:

  • Post-secondary education was highlighted as the foundation of a strong Alberta economy and vibrant province.
  • While there is increased support directed at expanding apprenticeships and trades education, there is also significant support for the many job-ready and labour market demand programs that MacEwan University offers.
  • Advanced Education’s operating expenses are $6.3B; this is an increase of $189M (or 3.1 per cent) from 2023/24.
  • You may have seen the increasing requirement that post-secondary institutions (PSIs) finance a reasonable share of their operations from non-government sources, including tuition, fees and private support. In 2022/23, own-source revenue of Alberta PSIs averaged 53 per cent of operating expenses and the intent is that by 2026/27, this will increase to 58 per cent – reducing government funding to 42 per cent.
  • There is increased investment in professional capacity in rural health and mental health with the goal of retaining medical professionals in the rural areas they train, as well as $10M over three years for additional mental health professionals.
  • Government will provide $182M in student-aid through scholarships, awards and grants and over $1.2B in student loans.

Overall, this is a good budget for MacEwan University and PSIs in general. We are grateful for targeted enrollment funding and over the longer-term hope to see these funds fold into the base operating grant as well as sustainable funding tied to our growth. This year we have been kept whole in terms of our operating grant and there is recognition and support for the important work we do as a key contributor to the economic strength and growth of our province.

Sincerely,

Dr. Annette Trimbee
President and Vice-Chancellor

Originally distributed via GlobalMail on March 1, 2024