NAIT tacks on three schools in academic restructure, adds two new deans

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The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) added two new deans to its staff and rejigged its academic structure to expand the number of schools offered for the 2024-’25 school year.

The polytechnic institute has shifted its structure for the first time in roughly a decade, changing the traditional four schools offered into seven. The shift in school offerings is meant to mark a “strategic reorganization” aimed at enhancing students’ experience and strengthening industry connections by grouping programs based on their intersection with others in the real world.

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“We were just too big to respond quickly. We wanted to be much more agile and much more connected, especially with our leadership, our deans, and our associate deans, and we lost some of that connectivity,” said NAIT academic vice-president Peter Leclaire in a Tuesday news release.

“By mimicking the collaboration and engagement that happens on a worksite, we get a better outcome overall.”

The seven schools are the JR Shaw School of Business, the School of Construction and Building Sciences, the School of Energy and Natural Resources, the School of Health and Life Sciences, the School of Manufacturing and Automation, the School of Media and Information Technology, and the School of Transportation.

NAIT said the move came after “extensive engagement” with faculty staff and industry members. Although the new structure has begun as of Aug. 19, NAIT said that its rollout will be viewed as an ongoing project that will continue to evolve.

“When we’re starting to look at what does that future workforce look like, that interdisciplinary approach to the programming is much more critical for us going forward and for our students,” said Leclaire.

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Leclaire said the move was made possible by “removing” a layer of administration, which allowed the organization to flatten. The changes are expected to broaden NAIT’s capacity to take on more students and grow the institution.

“We’re seeing a lot of growth, and that growth requires skilled talent, and so we’re hoping that we can attract more students to those career opportunities.”

New deans named

Along with the restructuring, NAIT is adding two new deans to the list of faculty, Agatha Ojimelukwe and Stephen McMillan.

With more than a decade of post-secondary education experience, Ojimelukwe was a lecturer and research associate at the University of Port-Harcourt in Nigeria. Recently, she was the interim director of Applied Research at NAIT and now will lead the School of Energy and Natural Resources.

“I am truly honoured to lead NAIT’s inaugural School of Energy and Natural Resources. Our current alignment with the energy and environmental sectors demonstrates our readiness to enhance our place in the provincial, national, and global educational scene and strengthen our position as the industry’s most trusted partner,” said Ojimelukwe.

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McMillan arrives at NAIT from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, where he worked for 15 years, recently as dean of mechanical engineering. He will serve as NAIT’s dean of the School of Manufacturing and Automation and the School of Transportation.

“These two schools are about making things better, and making things move, which are both critical fields with high demand in industry and significant growth potential. I look forward to the exciting times ahead,” said McMillan.

zdelaney@postmedia.com

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