Government & Policy
October 4, 2004
Provincial Auditor’s Annual Report, 2003-04
The Auditor General’s Annual Report 2003-04 has been released. See www.oag.ab.ca for the complete Report as a pdf file. Under the Ministry of Learning (pages 245 - ), there a couple of points of interest.
- Follow-up on Recommendation 31 from last year’s Report, which asked Alberta Learning to improve one of its core performance measures – you guessed it! – “public satisfaction with the affordability of the learning system.”
The A-G reports satisfactory progress by Learning in reviewing the definition of affordability and alternative measures of affordability. However, he notes that the earliest that Learning will be able to report on a new measure will be the Ministry’s 2007-2010 Business Plan and the 2007-08 Annual Report
- Follow-up on Recommendation 32 from last year, which asked Learning to measure periodically whether tuition fee policy and its related programs are effective in making post-secondary education affordable to students.
The A-G also reports satisfactory progress by Learning in implementation of this recommendation – the Ministry has revised its employment graduate survey and is planning additional surveys of high school students and students who start but do not complete post-sec education.
- Follow-up on Recommendation 33 from last year, asking Learning to require PSE institutions to comply with the tuition fee policy, and to clarify the methodology for applying the policy.
Once again, the A-G reports satisfactory progress in implementation here – the enactment of the regulation and the revisions to the policy have clarified some of the instances where the calculation’s methodology was unclear, and the Ministry is developing additional guidance to further clarify how to do the calculation. “All of the changes proposed will be in effect by the 2005-06 academic year.” The A-G pledges to continue to monitor implementation by the Ministry, and will report again in September 2006.
- Section 4.2 (pages 252 - ) looks at the management of research at U of A and U of C, and makes recommendations for each institution.
John Nicholls
Research & Liaison Officer
Alberta Colleges & Institutes Faculties Association