Craig Saunders
Canadian University Press
September 8, 1997
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Despite mounting opposition from students and faculty, B.C.'s provincial government is going ahead with plans for a new university.
Plans for the Technical University of British Columbia in Surrey were approved by the NDP government in late July and have already sparked an international academic boycott, launched jointly by the Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Confederation of University Faculty Associations-B.C.
Unlike traditional universities, the new school won't have an academic senate or a tenure system. According to the groups, the lack of senate, combined with a strong corporate presence on campus, presents a serious threat to academic freedom.
"We don't reject the idea that an applied institution can have ties to business," said Robert Clift, executive director of CUFA/BC. "But it needs to have academic freedom measures."
University senates normally include faculty, student, alumni and community representatives who oversee curriculum and programming issues. But at TUBC, the committees that advise the school on curriculum will comprise mainly of people from the business community.
The CUFA/BC fears that this structure will make the school a training tool for the corporations that fund it.
Clift says a university should be a place where "general skills are being built within a context ... not merely providing a set of specific skills a student will use unquestioningly when working."
Representatives at the Ministry of Education, Skills and Training, and TUBC President Bernie Sheehan both say Clift's concerns are premature.
"A number of the structures are just being developed, I think it's disappointing and regrettable that at this stage in the process that alarm bell has been pressed... Before CAUT and CUFA/BC have taken the time to adequately inform themselves," said Deputy Minister of Education Don Avison.
Sheehan, who is both president and CEO of the new university, echoed Avison's sentiment, explaining the structure will develop over time. "It's for the future to decide," he said.
But the CAUT does not recognize the new school as a university, and is encouraging academics to refuse to work there through an academic boycott.
As the campaign, which includes newspaper advertisements, continues to develop, the critics hope to see letters of support roll in. They also intend to ask accreditation agencies to deny the new school status as a university.
The first two programme areas offered at the new university will be information technology and management. Later programme areas will include medical and health technology, food design, industrial design and engineering. The new school will also offer classes through Internet.
Although there is no official TUBC campus yet, a site is available for the school in Surrey, and plans are in the works to offer some Internet-based courses as early as September of 1998.