brief

Province announces university review

Review will ensure an affordable and sustainable education system, province says

An overarching review of post-secondary education in Nova Scotia will begin in February of this year.

An economic panel reviewing the province’s budget called for the review last summer.

“The economic panel that the premier had organized, one of the recommendations was that two areas have a good close look. One was health and the other was (post-secondary) education,” says Dan Harrison, a spokesperson for the Department of Education.

Tim O’Neill, who was part of the province’s budget review last summer, will head the evaluation, which begins next month.

The review will cover all aspects of post-secondary education, including the university finances, demographics, enrolment trends and recruitment potential.

It will also look at policy and practices from other universities around the world.

Harrison says the province wanted to give O’Neill lots of room to examine all aspects of the universities.

He says the report will find “things we either need to change or enhance, and give him a chance to be able to look at the entire system as a whole to find out what are the best ways to go about delivering post-secondary education in Nova Scotia.”

The report will find a way to make post-secondary education affordable and sustainable for the province, says Harrison.

The review will take about five months, according to the government’s website on the project, and will be presented to the premier in June.

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