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Opposition Leader Gerry Reid says while he is pleased that there are some
good initiatives contained in the White Paper on post-secondary education,
he remains cautious about the future impacts that some of these
recommendations could have on students. "I was pleased to see that
government appears willing to invest new money into our post-secondary
education system, especially the recommendation to maintain a tuition
freeze," said Mr. Reid. "While there seems to be some positive initiatives
in this document, I am still concerned that the issue of student debt has
not been addressed and I fear there could be future program cuts at college
campuses across the province. I am also disappointed that more funding
wasn’t allocated to address the growing list of infrastructure needs of
Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic.
"Increased debt levels continue to be a major issue facing students in
this province. Today’s announcement does nothing to help alleviate the
massive debt being experienced by many students. This will continue to be an
issue that will plague our education system until government makes a direct
and significant investment that addresses this growing problem.
"Government has also announced that they will not close any College of
the North Atlantic campuses in the province as rumored over the past several
months. Instead, campuses will be aligned to reflect future government
policies. While I am pleased that government will not immediately be closing
any campuses, I fear this alignment will result in program cuts. Government
may begin centralizing some programs and this may have a significant impact
on course offerings and the ability of campuses to attract new students.
Should these cuts take place and enrollment drops, government may use this
as an excuse to close campuses in the future. I see nothing in this document
preventing program cuts from taking place.
"I will be watching the implementation of these policies to ensure
government lives up to their commitments. It is important to strengthen
investments in the post-secondary education system in this province to
ensure we have an educated population that will grow our economy into the
future. While today’s announcement appears to provide some good initiatives,
I encourage government to look at future investments, not cutbacks, to
ensure Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have easy access to a strong and
vibrant education system. This is the only way to ensure we have the skilled
and professional workforce that will attract new industry and investment to
this province."
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