Opposition is mounting against a report to be released today, expected to recommend sweeping changes to New Brunswick's postsecondary system, including the creation of new polytechnics at the satellite campuses of the province's two largest universities.
The report, prepared by an independent commission, will be released this morning in Fredericton, but details that have filtered out in recent days have already prompted campus rallies, letters to the editor in local papers and vows from university leaders to fight the changes.
At the heart of the protests are reports that the two commissioners - Quebec academic Jacques L'Écuyer and Rick Miner, president of Toronto's Seneca College - will recommend transforming the Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick and two satellite campuses of the University of Moncton at Edmundston and Shippagan into polytechnics focusing on technical, applied training.
This option, discussed by Mr. L'Écuyer in an interview with a French-language paper, has sparked outrage among faculty at the Saint John campus of UNB who argue the city will be the only one of its size in Canada without a full university.
"This would take away access to a liberal arts and general science education," said Leslie Jeffrey, a political science professor at UNB in Saint John. "Saint John should have a university and nothing less."
Leaders at both universities have spoken out against the expected recommendations and have promised to fight any move to close campuses. UNB president John McLaughlin told a gathering in Saint John on Wednesday that he would defend the campus from any efforts to hive it off and transform it into a polytechnic.
Greg Kealey, the vice-president of research at UNB, said the school already struggles to attract faculty as one of the smallest comprehensive universities in the country. The university has between 8,000 and 9,000 students at its main Fredericton campus and between 2,500 and 3,000 in Saint John. He said losing such as sizable portion of its student body would further reduce the school's clout.
In a letter to the editor in yesterday's Telegraph-Journal, several Saint John business leaders suggested the city's community college be moved to the same site as the university and share a single board and president. They said action is required to recognize the city's new role as a "northeast Energy Hub."
A spokeswoman for the province's Ministry of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour said minister Edward Doherty would not comment until after the commission's report is released.
The commission, which was established in January, is the most extensive review of the province's system of higher education in more than 40 years and has a mandate to reconfigure postsecondary institutions.
The province is home to four universities: UNB, the French-language University of Moncton, St. Thomas University in Fredericton and Mount Allison in Sackville, as well as a network of community colleges. In recent years the system has struggled with funding and like other eastern provinces is expected to face declining enrolments because of a drop in the university and college-aged population.