Campus Alberta Planning Resource

The Campus Alberta Planning Resource (CAPR) is an annual profile of Alberta’s advanced education system, published by Alberta Enterprise and Advanced Education. It provides a common source for data on demographics, enrolment, and economic factors that impact demand for post-secondary education and the capacity of post-secondary institutions to meet this demand. This helps to ensure that Campus Alberta can respond to the needs of learners, the economy, and society in all regions across the province.

The purpose of the Campus Alberta Planning Resource is to:

• Provide post-secondary institutions with a common foundation of data and information to support planning and decision-making;
• Encourage all the different stakeholders in Campus Alberta to work together in order to meet the needs of Albertans efficiently and sustainably; and,
• Highlight opportunities, challenges, and key policy directions to Campus Alberta moving forward.

• Information reflecting the ministry's broader mandate, which now includes enterprise, economic development, immigration and labour force development.
• Key discussion questions at the beginning of each chapter.
• Expanded information and discussion on youth employment in Alberta (Chapter Two).
• Information on enrolment by gender at a sector and program-band level for the publicly funded post-secondary institutions in Alberta (Chapter Three).
• Information on the number of journeyman certificate completions (Chapter Three).
  

• Alberta has a younger demographic structure than other provinces. Over 2011-21, an overall population increase of 6.3% is anticipated for this prime post-secondary attending cohort (18 to 34 year olds). However, Alberta's overall population is still aging.
• Rates of population growth and aging vary among regions of the province.

• Albertans tend to delay transition to post-secondary education after high school. In 2010-11, Alberta’s four-year high school transition rate was 38.2% and its six-year transition rate was 58.4%.
• However, Alberta’s level of educational attainment is on par with the Canadian average. Alberta’s high level of educational attainment is due, in part, to the strong numbers of educated people moving to the province for work.
• In 2010, over 51.7% of Albertans had a post-secondary qualification.

• Alberta’s post-secondary enrolment has been steadily increasing, averaging about 2.52% per year over the past decade. Preliminary enrolment reports for the 2011-12 academic year estimate an annual system-level enrolment increase of 0.3% from the previous year.
• Aboriginal learners comprise about 3% of enrolment at Alberta post-secondary institutions.
• Alberta’s post-secondary system can expect an enrolment increase of approximately 10,590 FLEs (Full-Load Equivalent Enrolment) over the 2011-21 period.

• International students make up about 6% of enrolment at Alberta’s publicly-funded post-secondary institutions – about 13,150 students in 2010-11.
• International students also make up a significant proportion of Alberta’s graduate student population. In 2010-11, about 22% of Master’s Degree and almost 34% of PhD students were international students.

• Significant upfront investments have been made in recent years to increase Campus Alberta’s capacity to meet higher demand from learners and the economy.
• While the number of Albertan turn-aways increased in fall 2011, another 1,200 students received offers of admission compared to the previous year.
• A turn-away is an individual that met the minimum qualifications in at least one of his/her applications to post-secondary education at one of Alberta’s publicly-funded institutions, but was not offered admission and did not attend any program to which they applied at any publicly-funded institution in Alberta in that academic year.
• The number of applicants to Alberta’s publicly-funded post-secondary institutions in 2011 increased 1.9% over the previous year. Application trends are generally impacted by institutional activities, student behaviour, and the strength of the economy.
• Programs with the greatest student demand continue to be those with the highest labour market demand, namely those in health sciences, and trades and technology program bands.
• As demand fluctuates with the province’s economic context, maintaining the right degree of flexibility in the system must be a priority..

Three key areas of Strategic Focus emerged from CAPR 2012's profile of Campus Alberta:

Eight specific system outcomes were aligned with these areas of Strategic Focus as outlined in the CAPR 2012's Executive Summary.

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