Laurie Callsen - news editor 

Students looking to apply or transfer to Alberta post-secondary institutions can now do it on one convenient website.

ApplyAlberta.ca was a nearly five-year project stemming from the Access to the Future Act. 

The application system took four years, $14.5 million from the government of Alberta and thousands of collaborative working hours to create, said Minister of Advanced Education and Technology Doug Horner.

“The final benefit of ApplyAlberta reaches beyond faster electronic service. It’s going to impact the lives of countless Albertans looking to enhance their quality of life and in the long run become stronger contributors to our province.” 

Students can use ApplyAlberta to apply or transfer to any of the 26 institutions (see sidebar), without creating separate application forms. After repeating the application process for one school, the student can go back the second-last step and select another institution to apply to.

The system seems logical, but is the first of its kind in Canada so far. But similar systems are in the works in British Columbia, as well as Georgia and California.

“The flight attendant on my way up here said ‘oh, you mean you just invented that? Why didn’t you invent it years ago?’” relayed Bow College President Sharon Carry.

Creating a profile on ApplyAlberta takes an average of 25 minutes. Once a student creates a profile, personal and academic is retained and a new profile doesn’t have to be made. Transcripts will be sent online, which means no more long lines at the Office of the Registrar. The cost of transcripts are being absorbed by the government and institutions.

“It’s another way we can make post-secondary education more affordable for students,” said Horner.

ApplyAlberta is making things a lot easier for Alberta post-secondary institutions too.

 “It’s helping the institutions and government monitor where the greatest demands in programming are and what the students are looking for,” said Horner. “It really will be a remarkable tool for both the students and the managers of the system.”

Dr. Seamus O’Shea, former Vice-president (Academic) and Provost at the University of Lethbridge, who stepped down from his duties to develop this system, said that ease of use and student access was the main goal. 

“We wanted to make sure no one was worse off as a result of us doing this project.”

The system was created from scratch so it could be easily adapted and open to international prospective students. 

Currently, there are about 29,000 ApplyAlberta Profiles.