Core Business Areas
The Ministry's core business areas are:
1. Educational Institutions and Organizations
The Ministry provides funding to British Columbia's public universities, university colleges, community colleges, institutes,
and other organizations that support the province's public post-secondary education system, as well as supporting research,
scholarships, and other initiatives related to post-secondary education.
2. Student Financial Assistance
Student financial assistance is provided to make post-secondary education and the associated personal and social benefits
accessible to all students. It is available to eligible students at the post-secondary level attending public and designated
private institutions. It combines repayable loans, non-repayable assistance, scholarships, bursaries, targeted labour market
bursary incentives and debt reduction measures. In addition, the Ministry manages student aid programs on behalf of the federal
government, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation and other British Columbia ministries and agencies.
3. Debt Service Costs and Amortization of Prepaid Capital Advances
The Ministry provides funding to public post-secondary institutions to finance capital projects, including upgrades, renovations,
replacements, expansions, and new facilities and equipment. The Ministry services the debt associated with these projects
and amortizes the resulting assets over their economic lives.
4. Research and Innovation
The Ministry is also the Ministry Responsible for Research and Technology in the province. The Ministry supports research
and technology, as well as teaching (via the Educational Institutions and Organizations core business), through operating
grants to universities; provides funding to provincial research organizations, such as the British Columbia Innovation Council;
oversees the Premier's Technology Council and British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund; and supports inter-ministry collaboration
and partnership on research initiatives.
5. Executive and Support Services
The Ministry provides leadership, establishes policy, and administers accountability and planning processes for British Columbia's
public post-secondary education system. The Ministry also establishes policy and legislative frameworks for private post-secondary
institutions, and supports the Degree Quality Assessment Board, which administers a quality assessment process for new degree
programs at public and private post-secondary institutions. The Ministry is supported by staff in the Ministry of Education
in the areas of human resources, information privacy3, records management, financial management, and information systems. The Ministry of Advanced Education's Information Resource
Management Plan Overview is at: http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/publications/irmp/welcome.htm