Integrated Enrolment Growth Plan
As part of Shape: The University Strategic Plan 2023-2033, the U of A has set forth an ambitious goal to expand enrolment to 60,000 students by 2033. With it comes the opportunity to meet the needs of our growing province and enhance our impact in Alberta and the world. We embrace our role in delivering higher education to both Albertans and those from around the globe and welcome the opportunity to expand to meet labour market needs while sustaining outstanding academic quality.
Why Grow Enrolment?
Access
Growth ensures continued access for Albertan students by keeping pace with our province’s growing population and increased labour market demand.
Impact
Growth creates a thriving and diverse learning community from a variety of innovative programs, leading to even greater impact in Alberta and the world.
Sustainability
Growth enables staged investments in services, resources and infrastructure across the institution to secure a sustainable future for the university.
The Enrolment Growth Planning Process
Achieving growth on this scale is complex and requires coordinated planning with a staged approach to securing resources and investing in building our capacity to support and sustain higher enrolment. As such, an Integrated Enrolment Growth Plan (IEGP) process has been developed to initiate broad engagement, provide strategic coordination and ensure that growth is aligned with the university’s mission and organizational capacity. Through this planning process, various aspects and impacts of enrolment growth are being explored, including areas of investment, student access and experience, support services, as well as the physical space and technology to accommodate such growth.
Objectives and Scope
- Align enrolment growth plans with research and teaching objectives, demographic growth potential, workforce demand and international opportunities.
- Develop detailed planning scenarios for growth objectives broken down by graduate, undergraduate, international, domestic and Indigenous learners for 60,000 students by 2033.
- Provide a roadmap for advocacy efforts and infrastructure decisions in alignment with growth objectives.
- Establish an innovative space utilization and development strategy that enables growth, including work to expand virtual offerings in online education and hybrid learning.
- Ensure a clear accountability structure and phased planning for achieving growth objectives.
- Create an appropriately inclusive process for advancing this work.
- Ensure planning connects to the objectives of the Student Experience Action Plan and aligns with other university strategic plans and initiatives.
Approach
Work to develop an Integrated Enrolment Growth Plan (IEGP) has been divided into two tracks led by a Steering Committee and coordinated through an Oversight Committee. These tracks include Areas of Focus that are ready for immediate action without additional government investment and those requiring longer-term proactive steps to enable growth. Groups working in these areas are intended to develop recommendation plans to operationalize and enable different components of the overall plan. Leading and directing this work, the IEGP Steering Committee ensures the following principles and parameters are applied throughout the integrated enrolment planning process:
- Decision making is ultimately governed by our institutional strategic plans and aligned with a One University approach.
- The university will endeavor to be responsive to government priorities, which includes participating in targeted enrolment funding opportunities.
- Growth planning should be mindful of our commitments to Indigenous initiatives and to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and is informed by consideration for the quality of the experience of our students, faculty and staff.
- Growth planning is data-informed.
- Transparency is essential throughout the enrolment growth planning process.
Governance Structure
Steering Committee
The Integrated Enrolment Growth Plan (IEGP) Steering Committee directs development of the draft plan that will outline the interdependencies, feasibility considerations and impact needs for enrolment growth. It is composed of College Deans and Vice-Provosts, the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies as well as support from communications and data specialists to provide an overarching lens on enrolment growth.
Oversight Committee
The Areas of Focus Oversight Committee assesses the data strategy associated with enrolment growth and prepares the initial draft plan for the IEGP Steering Committee to review. This committee is composed of the Chairs and Vice-Chairs from each of the Areas of Focus Groups to ensure alignment, manage connections and establish coordination across all working groups.
Areas of Focus Groups
Recognizing the diversity of our community and the broad reach that student enrolment has on the university, seven Areas of Focus Groups have been created to ensure all aspects of growth are examined. Members of the Areas of Focus Groups are composed of leadership, faculty, staff and students representing the three colleges, all faculties, including the stand-alone faculties, university-wide service units as well as the Students’ Union and Graduate Students’ Association.
Timing and Deliverables
While enrolment growth is a long-term institutional goal, by thinking ahead and planning now, we are better prepared to adapt and implement plans for enrolment growth in the future. This first phase of IEGP development occurs until the end of May 2024 and involves exploration, analysis and risk mitigation by the IEGP committees and working groups. Once their work is submitted and developed into a draft IEGP, it will be reviewed by the IEGP Steering Committee before being submitted to the President's Executive Committee - Strategic (PEC-S) in late spring/early summer for review and feedback. The draft IEGP will include the following components:
- recommendations for scaled growth to achieve 60,000 students, including target enrolment composition
- interim targets including viable targets and contingencies in the absence of funding for domestic growth
- recommendations to address critical dependencies and constraints
- governance and decision pathways including recommendations for long-term enrolment planning governance
- recommendations on university community engagement
Contact
In the coming months, more information about the development of the IEGP will be shared including next steps in the process. In the meantime, if you have questions, recommendations or other feedback about the enrolment growth planning process, please contact us at IEGP@ualberta.ca.
Related Articles
- From Growth to Impact: Preparing the Integrated Enrolment Growth Plan
- U of A sets sights on higher enrolment, stronger global impact
Video
Verna’s Vlog with Melissa Padfield
On November 29, 2022, Interim Provost and Vice-president (Academic) Verna Yiu spoke with Melissa Padfield, Deputy Provost, Students and Enrolment about enrolment growth.