Last week’s Board of Governors (BoG) meeting was the final meeting for the spring, with the next to take place Sept. 29. The meeting began by welcoming the new chair, Melanie Bayley, who was previously ATCO’s president. The Board also welcomed Andrea Klymchuk to the group as a non-academic member and said goodbye to Chase Anderson, one of the student representatives.
Summary:
- A financials update showed that NAIT is “essentially at breakeven on core operations,” which is consistent with their Q3 forecast. International tuition revenue is still predicted to decline in the future. NAIT also received a clean audit with no misstatements found in their financial statements. Read more
- NAIT’s director of program quality presented on program life cycles, highlighting the need for foundations that allow them to meet evolving labour needs, maintain a relevant program mix and offer a consistent experience for students. Read more
- Interim AVP of transformation, Marcus Nordin, gave an update on NAIT’s institutional transformation project RISE. He said over 500 submissions have already been received from the NAIT community. Read more
- The Advanced Skills Centre is underway, with the site being prepared for construction. NAIT emphasized the importance of change management for staff and students who will move to the ASC in 2030. NAIT also stressed that the project is not fully funded, and efforts to raise further funds are continuing. Read more
- Other projects discussed include an early alert system to identify students at risk for withdrawing and an update on marketing and recruitment efforts. Read more
Program and curriculum showcase
Stacy Oslund, director of program quality, gave a presentation about program life cycles and the program quality team’s goals.
Oslund explained that their journey so far has included a stagnant program mix, resource intensive comprehensive reviews and flexibility that leads to excessive variation.
The team’s path forward is:
- Focusing resources on growth
- Responsiveness
- Rigor and creating insights
- Informed decisions
The program quality team’s priorities will be:
- Quality assurance framework: “Foundations on how we create, monitor and maintain programs”
- Degree development: “Meet evolving labour needs, support career progression, attract students, supports laddering”
- Credit framework review: “Create consistent experiences for students, scale program efficiencies, support student mobility”
- Apprenticeship curriculum updates
Some board members had questions about the sunset phase of the program life cycle, and Oslund said NAIT must allow impacted parties to be heard while socializing the idea that program closures are a reality.
Academic member Steve Chattargoon brought up using program report cards to help guide program decisions and ensure programs are aware of issues, which Oslund said could be part of the credit framework review in the future.
Board chair Bayley questioned how NAIT is collaborating with other institutions to ensure quality.
RISE update
Marcus Nordin, interim AVP of transformation, gave an update on the efforts of RISE, an ongoing institutional transformation project based on NAIT community submissions. It stands for Resilience, Innovation, Sustainability and Engagement. The internal RISE site says it’s about more than responding to financial challenges — it’s “about fundamentally changing how we approach transformation at NAIT, not just for the next year or two, but for the long term.”
Nordin announced there were 500 submissions from the community with ideas on how to make NAIT better, and he aims for 1000.
Nordin also gave a callback to a previous inquiry by student member Tanroop Mahal, announcing that RISE had hired four BA summer students for learning opportunities.
Advanced Skills Centre update
The land where the ASC will be built is being prepared for construction, and there will be a critical shift as construction continues.
VP academic Peter Leclair discussed continued planning for academic transformation, and VP HR, students and international Clayton Davis discussed the importance of change management for staff and students moving into the ASC from other buildings.
VP finance Mike High introduced AVP major capital projects Tim Cartmell, who will help lead the ASC through its next stage of development. High said the design of the building will be continued to be discussed with stakeholders, but that the outside is more determined than the inside at this moment and the internal design is still malleable.
The next major milestone will be a development permit. In January, the site will look like major construction. The board stressed that while NAIT secured funding from the GoA, the project is not fully funded and efforts for this will continue. Industry, donors and community want more information about ASC and want to know where they can place their social investment from an industry perspective.
The board also announced a brand refreshment based on focus group discussions, with updates to come in September.
The takeaway from this update is that change management and ensuring a welcoming culture to retain key talent and mixing students from satellite campuses will be crucial as the project moves forward.
Year-end financials
Arden Kobewka, AVP finance and corporate services, gave a presentation on NAIT’s financial standings.
According to the presentation, “Excluding investment income of $28.3M, NAIT is essentially at breakeven on core operations with a $3.4M surplus. This is consistent with [the] Q3 forecast.”
- Operating surplus: $31.7M
- vs. budget of $0.7M (+$31.0M)
- vs. Q3 forecast of $26.3M (+$5.4M)
- Total revenues: $447.0M
- +$23.7M (5.3%) vs. budget
- +$9.7M vs. Q3 forecast of $437.3M
- Total expenses: $415.3M
- -$7.3M (1.7%) vs. budget
- +$4.2M vs. Q3 forecast of $411.1M
- Net assets: $390.7M
- +$35.1M (9.9%) year-over-year
- Net financial assets up to $126.2M (from $87.3M)
Throughout the year, outlook strengthened with each quarter due to Project RISE benefits and apprenticeship grants. Apprenticeship and Government of Alberta grants added $14.3M to the budget and lifted the Q3 forecast by $5.5M.
While GoA grants made up most of the total revenue at $201.7M, the predicted revenue budget for student tuition and fees was $165.8M while the actual number was $161.3M. Heading into 2027, international tuition revenue is predicted to continue declining, going from $84.7M in 2024 to a forecasted revenue of $31.0M in 2029.
Salaries and employee benefits made up most of the institution’s expenses, which ended up being $13.5M below budget “driven by vacancy management, deferred hires, and salary assumptions.”
The institution received a clean audit and no misstatements were found in the financial statements, which Kobewka says is celebratory as it comes with much effort. NAIT achieved operating breakeven, but the institution predicts forward-looking pressures due to changing international enrolment and provincial funding frameworks.
Other presentations
Early alert system
AVP student experience Petrina Ferreira gave updates about an early alert system which would use machine learning to analyze data and identify students at risk of falling behind or withdrawing in order to provide intervention.
It is built with help from NAIT IT and student registrars, and Ferreira reassured that confidentiality will be at the forefront of this project. Its target to roll-out is this fall, and its first iteration will be built on using data sets.
Marketing and recruitment
The board discussed marketing efforts by the institution, which are going well. NAIT is working with industry to promote ideas such as “your future boss wants you to come to NAIT.”
They say that in phase two of the marketing campaign, there are four new recruitment efforts with presidents and CEOs of relevant industry partners.
The primary audience is parents, and the secondary audience is students.
Student member Anderson asks how NAIT is handling public perception when it comes to funding cuts and issues in the Advanced Carpentry Program.
President’s update
NAIT president and CEO Laura Jo Gunter shared some exciting NAIT milestones, including hosting the men’s volleyball national championships, students in the digital narrative cinema program having a student-made film festival at Edmonton Public Library and NAIT instructor Paul Bettio going to Shanghai for the WorldSkills competition.
It was also shared that 2026 will be the largest graduating class in NAIT’s history.
The next BoG meeting will take place on Sept. 29.
Feature image by Alleah Boisvert / The Nugget
