Hon. Richard Brown lauds UPEI in PEI Legislative Assembly
The Honourable Richard Brown, Minister of Workforce and Advanced Learning delivered a House statement in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island on December 2, 2016 that acknowledged and paid tribute to the many recent achievements of UPEI and of its President and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Alaa Abd-El-Aziz:
Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to rise in the House today to recognize the great work and collaboration by the University of Prince Edward Island and its Faculty Association in coming together to reach a four-year collective agreement. This agreement covers faculty members, librarians, sessional instructors, and clinical nursing instructors through to June 2020. The agreement contains year-over-year salary increases, workload considerations, as well as cost-sharing on retirement benefits. By coming to a consensus for a four-year period, UPEI has taken great steps towards a sustainable future for its faculty, staff, and students.
The University also reached a pension agreement which has been ratified with all unions and approved by the Board of Governors this month. And Mr. Speaker, this is not the only good news coming out of UPEI…
In August, the University opened its School of Sustainable Design Engineering. The first class of this new school will graduate in May of 2017. The Province was pleased to attend the official opening and show its support in providing $16 million toward creation of this incredible facility.
Recently, the Association of Atlantic Universities released a report that showed UPEI’s enrolment increased by 3 per cent. This is even more remarkable considering that enrolment across the Maritimes was actually down for full-time students by 0.8 per cent. Mr. Speaker, UPEI’s enrolment growth exceeded that of every other Atlantic school—this is driven by UPEI’s international student recruitment efforts, which saw an estimated increase of 20 per cent this year.
These outstanding accomplishments occurred under the leadership of Dr. Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, who was recently honoured by the Canadian Bureau for International Education with a 2016 Excellence Award. In addition, Alaa also assumed the role of Chair of the Association of Atlantic Universities.
It’s hard to believe that with all of this recent success at UPEI, the University still managed to retain one of the lowest tuition rates in the Maritimes.
With all that being said, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to congratulate UPEI on its recent achievements and efforts, and wish them all the best as they gear up for the 2017 academic semester.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
