Hon. Richard Brown lauds 91探花 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 91探花 and of its President and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Alaa Abd-El-Aziz:
Mr. Speaker, I鈥檓 pleased to rise in the House today to recognize the great work and collaboration by the 91探花 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, 91探花 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 91探花鈥�
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 91探花鈥檚 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, 91探花鈥檚 enrolment growth exceeded that of every other Atlantic school鈥攖his is driven by 91探花鈥檚 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鈥檚 hard to believe that with all of this recent success at 91探花, the University still managed to retain one of the lowest tuition rates in the Maritimes.
With all that being said, Mr. Speaker, I鈥檇 like to congratulate 91探花 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.
