On Campus

N.B. government won’t yet release controversial report

Student groups and Opposition say report contains controversial recommendations

New Brunswick’s minister of post-secondary education says it will be business as usual at the province’s universities and colleges this fall. The comments comes shortly after Ed Doherty refused to release a controversial report on the future of post-secondary education despite the fact details have been leaked to the media.A newspaper story says a working group of university presidents and college principals recommends a $466-million investment, consisting largely of creating new levels of bureaucracy.

The details have drawn fire from student groups and the Opposition says the minister now has a responsibility to officially release the report in the legislature before the session ends next Wednesday.

Duncan Gallant, president of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, says the report pays a lot of attention to creating bureaucracy and little to help students afford post-secondary education.

The report was commissioned after an earlier review was widely criticized for suggesting the merger of some universities and colleges to form polytechnics. Opposition critic Margaret-Ann Blaney says the new report suggests creating two “Consortia of Applied Learning and Training,” but wonders if that’s just polytechnics under another name.

Doherty said yesterday that there is more work to be done on the report, and the government won’t release it before the legislature session ends next week. Today he said he is still working on the government’s response to the latest report and expects to release it within days.

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