Aurora College is planning to shutter all community learning centres in the NWT as of June 30.
This could impact 31 indeterminate and term employees, in addition to several casual workers.
The college announced the dramatic step on Jan. 23, citing "ongoing issues of low enrolment" and stated that the measure decision was unanimous among the institution's board of directors.
"The current delivery model has been in place for a few decades and has become prohibitively expensive, outdated and ineffective. The community learning centres are not meeting the needs of learners and communities as a result of these serious issues," the college stated in a news release.
Academic upgrading will continue to be offered via its Yellowknife, Inuvik and Fort Smith campuses, as well as online. However, Aurora College is withdrawing from its partnership with Inclusion NWT, which operates the Yellowknife Literacy Outreach Centre, as of June 30, and will no longer be offering literacy-level programming.
“The ongoing low enrolments and completion rates at the community learning centres are evidence that the current way of delivering academic upgrading is no longer working, so changes must be made to ensure the College continues to meet the current and future needs of learners, communities, and the Northern labour market,” stated Joseph Handley, the college's board chair. "It is the responsibility of the board of governors to ensure that Aurora College continues to be efficient, effective, and sustainable, especially as the college transforms to a polytechnic university."
The Union of Northern Workers immediately issued its own news release expressing concern for 47 potential job losses in addition to the repercussions on education.
"The union is deeply concerned about how this will impact small communities in the NWT, particularly those with already limited access to secondary education and upgrading opportunities," the union stated.
There are 19 community learning centres in the NWT.
While meeting with Inuvik Town Council on Dec. 9, Aurora College president Angela James acknowledged that low graduation levels in the territory are posing a challenge.
"I must admit that Aurora College, and across the Northwest Territories, we're dealing with major issues," she said, "especially in many of the NWT school systems with our high school students that are not ready for post-secondary studies. So what the board of governors is investigating and looking at is that. A lot of our dollars... are spent on upgrading, so we need to have conversations with the NWT superintendents association and the principals of the Northwest Territories because there is many, many students who are not graduating or are not coming in and are not ready to take ENRTP, or personal recreation sports or nursing programs. They need a lot of preparation work before they are ready."
She also admitted that previous administrations were overly optimistic in setting a 2025 deadline for the transition to a polytechnic university.
In the legislative assembly on Oct. 18, Frame Lake MLA Julian Morse said, "The college is bleeding staff. They're missing milestones. There's no public statements on the indications about the transition [to a polytechnic university] so I have to say I'm a bit confused. The minister seems to be quite confident about the transition, but all the public indications are showing that it's not going well."
Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland later responded that she was "in a bit of a difficult situation here where I'm being held responsible, really, for operational items. And I'm not in charge. I do not have the authority over the operations of the college.
"However, what I do have control over is the mandate agreement which we set together, which we're in the process of setting right now. I also have control over the accountability framework, which was just put in place and I intend to use," Cleveland continued. "I also do have control over the funding framework of post‑secondary institutions and Aurora College, and I intend to use that as well. These are the three key tools that I have at my disposal and have authority over and will use in this process. That accountability framework is a key piece, and that was just put in place this summer."
In its strategic framework for 2019-2029, found in the Aurora College Corporate Plan 2024-25, among the goals identified are increasing access to post-secondary education opportunities and remaining responsive to local and regional needs.
In 2023-24, Aurora College had 264 people enrolled in its certificate and diploma programs across the territory. That was down from 299 students a year earlier.
There were 22 people who went through academic upgrading, skill development and language proficiency in 2023-24, a decline from 38 in 2022-23, according to Aurora College's 2023-24 annual report.
The GNWT allocated $32.9 million in funding for the college in 2024-25, the bulk of the institution's budget.