Nova Scotia’s provincial government will cut its governing ties to the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC), granting it the level of academic freedom and “insitutional autonomy” seen at other ag schools.
Under a bill introduced Wednesday, the Truro-area college would no longer be a branch of the provincial department of agriculture, although its mandate, programming, funding and staffing would not change, the province said.
The legislation would bring NSAC’s 100-year-old governance model in line with other Canadian post-secondary schools, the province said.
It’s perceived that the limits on academic freedom and the school’s inability to retain ownership of research results make it harder to effectively contract research and to recruit and retain faculty, the province said.
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Research and funding opportunities could pass NSAC by due to “approval and other processes,” and government ownership has either “impeded or disqualified” NSAC from other funding opportunities, the province added.
The new bill will help create a board of governors and academic senate for NSAC.
Describing the move as “a necessary step forward” for the college, Agriculture Minister Brooke Taylor said in a release that it will benefit faculty and students as well as the ag industry.
