Embracing religious difference in higher education

By Grace Karram. For the most part Canada is still a bastion of public post-secondary education. The majority of degree-granting institutions across the country are publicly funded, with government charters establishing their mandates. At the same time each province has at least one institution on the periphery of the public system that is private and faith-based, offering degrees for its particular constituency. Overall, these institutions mirror their larger, public counterparts in their governance and programme offerings. But every so often, issues of academic freedom or conservative student conduct policies spark heated debates over how much integration religious post-secondary education should have into the larger provincial system.
The current controversy over Trinity Western University’s potential law school is one such issue that has generated vicious criticism from both sides. The British Columbia university’s particular code of student conduct is seen by some as a reason to limit the institution from offering certain degrees and keep it at a distance from the rest of the system. However, a recent study on the province of Manitoba found that private, faith-based institutions can be effectively integrated into a provincial system through strategic university policy and institutional collaboration. More...