TRU Board of Governors votes to discontinue four visual arts programs

“Visual Arts at TRU has a long-standing relationship to the Kamloops community. However, over the course of 10 months of deliberation and research, it is clear the specified VA programs have very low graduation rates, with many students not completing the credentials or leaving TRU. The largest enrolments are in Years 1 and 2 and attract non-program students (those who take VA as electives). As well, very few Indigenous students register or complete these programs in the programs. Overall, those students who do graduate, very few attain a career directly related to their program,” read a summary by Gillian Balfour, Provost and Vice President Academic.

Financial implications of the program were also highlighted in the report to the Board of Governors.

“The VA faculty has implemented self-selected course caps much lower than other programs, on pedagogical necessity for studio space instruction. As a result of this practice, the average program course cost per FTE (student) is $44,094, whereas a Humanities course cost per FTE is $7,849. VA salary costs represent 10 per cent of the Faculty of Arts HR costs yet are only 4 per cent of enrolments,” reads the report.

“TRU is committed to retaining the art gallery space, as well as electives in areas of visual arts that are of relatively high student demand. The studio and classroom space currently allocated to VA programs, could be rescaled to provide more programming and student service options,” continued the report from Balfour.

by Michael Reeve

TRU Board of Governors votes to discontinue four visual arts programs

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