UBC Student Society Praises Campus 2020 Report

This was our press release regarding Campus 2020



VANCOUVER, BC (April 24, 2007) The Alma Mater Society (AMS), the student society at UBC, today praised the Campus 2020 report on post-secondary education issued yesterday by former BC attorney-general Geoff Plant.

The AMS said that the report contained bold new ideas that could improve the quality of education in the province if the government adopts them.

AMS President Jeff Friedrich said the key would be to provide funding to implement the report’s recommendations. “It has to be fully funded,” he said, “or we won’t get beyond where we are today.”

“We’re impressed with the report’s position on improved data collection, which reflects one of the suggestions in the AMS submission to Campus 2020 in December of last year,” said Friedrich.

The organization’s main disappointment was concerning tuition. “We were looking for a proportional cap to limit the student contribution to 20 percent of the cost of their education,” said AMS VP External Matthew Naylor, “but overall this is an excellent report that we hope the government adopts.”

The AMS praised the combined emphasis on access and excellence – singling out the report’s ambitious goal of having the province achieve the highest level of participation in post-secondary education per capita in Canada by 2015, along with the goal of having the province rank highest in the country on quality measures by that same year.

“We’re pleased with the proposals for a Higher Education Presidents Council, Higher Education Board, and a Pacific Centre of Excellence in Learning Innovation, which reflect the spirit of our submission to Campus 2020 late last year,” said Friedrich.