Alberta has introduced legislation that would require covered universities and colleges to adopt policies on institutional neutrality and freedom of expression. The proposal would also change how domestic tuition is regulated. Separately, the government has announced a change to the treatment of parental income in provincial student-aid assessments for 2026–27.
Bill 38, the Advanced Education Statutes Amendment Act, 2026, received first reading in the provincial legislature on 3 November. It is a proposal, not law. Its post-secondary provisions would also require proclamation to come into force. Details of how the measures would operate are expected to depend on regulations and, for tuition, ministerial orders.
Institutional statements and individual views
The introduced bill says a neutrality policy must address a board’s duty to remain neutral on political, social or ideological matters unrelated to its academic mission. It must also address the ability of the board, its members and senior officials to issue institutional statements taking positions on such matters. A separate policy would have to address the protection of freedom of expression for students, staff and visitors.
The government says the proposed rules concern institutions’ official positions on issues outside their educational, research and institutional mandates. It says they would not limit academic freedom or what students, faculty and staff can lawfully say. The bill would allow the minister to exempt a board from the policy requirements in whole or in part.
The government says the neutrality and expression requirements would cover public post-secondary institutions and independent academic institutions under the provincial act. Other private and First Nations post-secondary institutions would not be affected by the proposed changes. Institutions would continue to manage their own speakers, invitations and events within the new minimum policy requirements, it says.
Advanced Education Minister Myles McDougall has said institutions could still respond to government decisions affecting them and express sympathy after tragedies. He drew a distinction between doing so and taking an institutional position on the political causes of a conflict. He has said potential consequences for non-compliance would be set through regulations; their details have not been announced.
A representative of faculty associations has raised concern about who would ultimately decide what counts as openness or neutrality. The opposition’s advanced education critic has argued that the government should focus on funding and affordability instead of the neutrality proposals.
A different approach to tuition
For domestic students at regulated public post-secondary institutions, Alberta currently limits the average annual tuition increase to two per cent. A separate ten per cent limit applies to increases for an individual programme. Institutions can seek approval for exceptional increases to specific programmes.
Bill 38 would allow the minister to set maximum tuition amounts by order for programmes or groups of programmes for 2027–28 and subsequent academic years. Institutions would set their rates within the applicable maximums. The proposed system would replace the existing annual growth-cap approach, rather than simply reducing fees.
The government says that, during the planned transition, tuition for existing domestic students would not rise by more than two per cent in 2027–28. That is a proposed limit on an increase, not a reduction in tuition or a promise that every student will pay the same amount. The bill does not specify the eventual maximum for each programme.
How the maximums would work for particular programmes, and what annual increases could look like afterwards, remains uncertain. McDougall has said factors such as the cost of offering a programme will be considered. A student representative has cautioned that limiting annual increases does not automatically make fees affordable and that students need enough predictability to plan the cost of completing their education.
Conduct rules and student aid
The bill would allow the province to set minimum requirements for student codes of conduct through regulation. It says codes must address academic and non-academic misconduct and sexual and gender-based violence, among other requirements set out in the regulations. The government says institutions would continue to write their own codes and handle individual cases, with clear and accessible rules, fair and timely processes and privacy protections.
The government says the conduct requirements would apply to public institutions, with requirements for independent academic institutions set through policy. Under the bill, the minister could ask a board to submit its code and could direct it to revise and resubmit a code that does not meet the applicable requirements.
Separately from the bill, the government announced that it was removing parental income from provincial student-aid assessments for 2026–27. It said new applications would be assessed without parental income in early November and that the provincial aid calculation would no longer assume parents could contribute a set amount towards a student’s education and living costs. The announcement says other eligibility requirements remain unchanged.
There is an important distinction for grant applicants. Alberta Student Aid’s published policy for the Alberta Student Grant for Full-Time Students says that a single dependent student’s family income includes the parental income reported on the relevant schedule, and that dependent applicants must provide parental financial information for that grant. The announcement does not explain how the change interacts with that grant-specific guidance or whether it will be updated. Applicants should check the latest requirements for their circumstances rather than assume parental information is unnecessary for every form of aid.
The government says Alberta Student Aid will begin reassessing about 21,000 applications where parental income affected the award. For that reassessment, it says students do not need to reapply or provide additional documents, and those who qualify for extra provincial loan funding will be notified. Most reassessments will require staff review; the announcement does not establish that those reviews have started or finished.
The government expects the change to result in about C$118 million in additional Alberta student loan disbursements in 2026–27, within the existing loan budget. That is an estimate of lending, not a guarantee for individual applicants or an announcement of equivalent grants.
The bill also proposes changes to licensing for professional technologists and professional licensees who do specialised engineering and geoscience work. The government says both groups would be regulated by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta. The bill’s progress through the legislature, and the regulations and tuition orders that may follow, will determine which measures take effect and in what form.
