![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
This article introduces the special issue of REPCS dedicated to the analysis of the restructuring of higher education in Alberta, Canada. It describes the acceleration of the processes of commodification of education and research and the corporatization of institutional governance under the government that took office in April 2019. The Alberta case is situated within the political economy of this petro-state, governed by a right-wing populist party, as well as in relation to the global trends in post-secondary education driven by neoliberal regimes. Further, the article highlights the cracks in the foundations of modern universities that have deeper historical origins than neoliberalism, and that are widening as the governance and raison d‘être of these institutions are challenged by global socio-ecological crises and Indigenous-led decolonization and climate justice movements. Drawing upon first-hand knowledge, as a participant in the struggles at the University of Alberta, as well as extensive research into the government’s restructuring agenda and the impacts on the post-secondary sector, the author outlines proposals for reform of the legislative framework governing the relationship between universities and the state, as well as the internal governance of the institution, and assesses the current terrain of agency for such transformation.
Disclosure statement
There is no competing interest to declare.
Notes
1 This roundtable was held on October 22, 2022. The videorecording of the presentations is available at https://vimeo.com/763626928. The author was a participant in this panel, which was supported by the Kule Institute of Advanced Studies and the Sustainability Council at the University of Alberta and organized by the Kule Scholars Cohort for Climate Resilience in the 21stCentury.
2 Ecofeminist philosopher, Val Plumwood, describes a “master model” of Western modernity that is founded on binary oppositions between, e.g., the masculine and the feminine, mind and body, human and nature, reason and emotion. These dualisms “correspond directly to and naturalise gender, class, race and nature oppressions” (Plumwood, Citation1993, p. 43). Italian political ecologist, Stefania Barca, develops the idea of a master narrative of “eco-capitalist realism” that normalizes capitalist modernity “through the exclusion of racialized peoples and their ontologies from the realm of humanity proper,” and erases the reality that “the ecological crisis has emerged from the annihilation of alternate possibilities of inhabitation of the earth” (Barca, Citation2020, p. 27).
3 Robert Houle uses the term red-washing to describe what banks are doing when they advertise their performance on (limited) engagement with Indigenous communities as a kind of screen for their financing of resource extraction that does not have free, prior, and informed consent from affected First Nations. The efforts they make at consultation are typically “performative and superficial” (Houle, Citation2022, p. i). Houle’s, Citation2022 report identifies ten strategies used by banks to appear to be engaging meaningfully with Indigenous communities but that are essentially “window dressing” (Houle, Citation2022, p. 9). Institutions other than banks employ red-washing strategies, and the suggestion here is that universities, too, engage in symbolic forms of inclusion and recognition of Indigenous culture and knowledge that serve to disguise or distract attention from their involvement in the same resource-extractive economy that is antithetical to Indigenous lifeways and sovereignty.
4 The federal government transfers revenue to the provinces for expenditure on designated programs. There are four main transfer envelopes: Canada Health Transfer, Canada Social Transfer, Equalization, and Territorial Formula Financing. The Social Transfer supports post-secondary education, early childhood education and development, and social welfare services.
5 The UCP continued to govern the province from October 2022 – May 2023 under a different Premier, Danielle Smith, following the ouster of Jason Kenney by the libertarian wing of the party. Smith and the UCP were re-elected on May 29, 2023.
6 The only justification given for the draconian budget cuts was that Alberta was spending more, on average, per full-time-equivalent PSI enrolment than governments in BC or Ontario. The methodology used by the Blue-Ribbon Panel to compare PSE spending was roundly criticized by other economists. See Adkin et al. (Citation2022, p. 18) for references.
7 Jason Kenney made this claim in a video posted to Facebook and YouTube in April 2018.
8 Figures provided by the Non-Academic Staff Union President, Quinn Benders, by email April 28, 2023.
9 The NDP’s Bill 7, An Act to Enhance Post-Secondary Academic Bargaining, brought the PSE sector into alignment with the constitutional right to strike which had previously been denied to academic employees. Following passage of the Act, academics who held positions such as Deans and Associate VPs, as well as some professional administrative officers who had belonged to the APO employee group of AASUA, were “de-designated,” i.e., removed from the union. The union is unable to provide exact numbers but estimates that the de-designations account for a significant number of the membership decline between 2017-2019.
10 The source of this figure is the Chair of the ATS constituency committee of AASUA, Kristine Smitka (provided in an email from Ricardo Acuña, April 29, 2021). The Council of Ontario Universities did a survey in 2017 that found, similarly, that 50 per cent of undergraduate courses at 17 universities in that province were being taught by contract academics (CAUT Citation2018).
11 Email communication from the President of AASUA, Gordon Swaters, dated October 16, 2023. According to the former President of AASUA, Ricardo Acuña (email, April 20, 2021), the number of ATS fell by 200 from October 2019 to October 2020. In October 2023, AASUA gave the number of ATS as 920. There were, in addition, 400 Trust/Research Academic Staff and 80 Temporary Librarian, Administrative, and Professional Officers who did not have permanent contracts.
12 The agreement was 0 per cent in the first two years (retroactive, as there had been two years without a new agreement), then a 1.25 per cent increase at the end of year 3 (2022/23), and a 1.5 per cent increase in 2023/24, which would be topped off by a further 0.5 per cent if the provincial GDP rate of growth exceeded 2.7 per cent. (These increases have been eaten up by the rates of inflation in Canada.)
13 For definitions of the terms inherent and treaty rights see the Centre for First Nations Governance, https://fngovernance.org/our-inherent-rights/.
14 For a breakdown of this $171 million expenditure in “targeted enrolment expansion” by region, institution, and program, see Government of Alberta 2022.
15 The privileging of STEM fields in research funding and capital spending by neoliberal governments, and the devaluation and underfunding of Arts programs seem to be universal trends. The editors of The Guardian recently charged UK Ministers of Advanced Education with “taking the country backwards” by weakening arts and humanities programs (The Guardian (Editorial), Citation2023).
16 Asked by students in January 2020 whether the board of governors was reviewing the investment of the university’s endowment fund in fossil fuels, the board chair, Kate Chisholm, replied that it was not considering any such divestment, and justified this decision by referring to the university’s research on reducing GHG emissions from oil and gas extraction. See Lachacz Citation2020b.
17 The PSLA permits governments to appoint an unlimited number of “additional” governors to the boards.
18 This decision was taken by the Council and Executive without consultation with AASUA members. In a notification emailed to members in June 2023, the AASUA president offered as reasons for the decision the fact that AASUA had only one vote (out of five) but expected to have more influence than this because it paid “almost twice the dues as all other CAFA members combined.” Further, its positions were not always aligned with those of other CAFA members.
19 These efforts, in which the author participated, included mobilizations to write a more democratic constitution, reform election procedures, create a members’ forum for horizontal communication, and generally to engage members in the work of the association. A detailed account of this experience has yet to be written.
20 A survey by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT Citation2023) of members who were teaching pre-pandemic as well as in 2023 found that 89 per cent of respondents were teaching in-person before the pandemic, while only 63 per cent were doing so in 2023. In 2023, 24 per cent were teaching online, 12 per cent hybrid, and 2 per cent “other.”
21 At the University of Alberta, deferred maintenance costs were estimated to be $319 million in 2023 (Williams, Citation2023). Campus buildings were being torn down in lieu of investment in upgrading.
22 The Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Strathcona, Heather McPherson, has advocated for this measure in Parliament. The University of Alberta is located in her riding.
23 The Government of Alberta estimates that demand for full-time enrolments in PSE will increase by over 40,000 students between 2023 and 2031 (Government of Alberta 2023b).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Laurie E. Adkin
Laurie E. Adkin is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. She has taught in the fields of comparative politics and feminist/intersectional studies and pioneered the use of political ecology as a theoretical framework in Canadian environmental studies and political economy. Her research focuses on the political economy of ecological crises, particularly Canadian climate policy, and has included the roles of innovation agencies and universities in both obstructing and potentially contributing to climate justice.