About FPSE
The Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC is the provincial voice for faculty and staff in BC teaching universities, colleges and institutes, and in private sector institutions. FPSE member locals, represented by Presidents' Council and the Executive, represent over 10,000 faculty and staff at 19 public and 5 private sector institutions.
FPSE has just received word that the two Ministries responsible for post-secondary education-the Ministry of Science and Universities and the Ministry of Regional Economic and Skills Development-will lift the moratorium that was put in place on the granting of new degrees. The moratorium was announced in mid-October and led to the appointment of an independent review by Dr. John Stubbs from Simon Fraser University.
Although the final report from Dr. Stubbs will not be tabled until sometime in April, the lifting of the moratorium is good news for our institutions and our faculty members. This means that the Post-Secondary Institutions Proposal System (PSIPS) will now accept new applications for degree proposals. As well, those applications that had been held in the system while the moratorium was in place will now move ahead to the quality assessment process.
During his review of the degree assessment process, Dr. Stubbs asked stakeholders to share their views and provide recommendations for ways to improve the process. FPSE made a submission to Dr. Stubbs and called on the government to open the degree assessment process to include more faculty input. In addition we cautioned the government to not embrace the US-style accreditation system that some in BC's business community are advocating. The US experience with accreditation is driven by the dominant role that private universities and colleges play in their system. The US accreditation system adds considerable costs to their institutions, costs that are ultimately paid by students. As well, because there is no single, recognized accrediting body in the US, there are still many barriers to having programs and degrees recognized across their post-secondary institutions.
Those barriers do not exist in BC. In fact, BC's system-coordinated by the BC Council on Admissions and Transfers (BCCAT)-is the envy of many provinces in Canada because it allows students to move throughout our public post-secondary system with full recognition for the programs and courses that they have taken.