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Alberta’s colleges and universities will soon see some of their government funding tied to targets including graduates’ income and employment rates.

Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said Monday that the United Conservative government plans to implement the new “outcomes-based” system by April 1, after consulting with students and faculty. The changes will see Alberta’s 26 publicly funded institutions get money based on up to 20 different measures, which will be weighted differently depending on the school, and gradually introduced over the next three years.

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The idea is that all institutions will have to live up to a set of performance measures, but different targets will matter more depending on the school. For example, a technical college and a research-intensive university wouldn’t be evaluated the same way.

But student leaders are worried about the tight timeline left to hammer out the details.

“We want to make sure that this model, if it’s going to be done, it needs to be done right,” said Council of Alberta University Students chair Sadiya Nazir. “We are concerned that with this timeline, there might not be the time to create a fully fleshed out model that doesn’t lead to any unintended consequences.”

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Adam Brown, vice president external at the University of Alberta Students’ Union, said Monday’s announcement was expected, given that last year’s MacKinnon Report recommended the new funding model.

But he also worried about whether there was enough time to give feedback to the government, given all the questions raised by the change.

“If the economy is slow, like right now, is that something that would result in a university receiving less funding? We do need to have a large discussion about what these things actually mean and what impact it’s going to have on the student experience.”

Details of the system

Nicolaides said 15 per cent of each school’s operational funding will be tied to performance measures to start, moving up to a maximum of 40 per cent by the 2022-23 academic year. Besides employment and income rates, international and domestic enrolment and administrative expense ratios are other performance measures the province says it might use. Funding agreements will be in place for three years instead of being renewed annually.