The Voice for Alberta's Graduate Students

What We Do

The Alberta Graduate Provincial Advocacy Council (ab-GPAC)  works with our members to try and improve the graduate student experience. We do this by advocating to the provincial government, post secondary institutions, and other stakeholders.  Our advocacy efforts are informed by student feedback and research.  

Each year our student board members bring forward the challenges that students are facing on their campus.  The board then selects priority areas of focus in order to develop research based position policies that can be used in advocacy meetings and campaings.

2021-2022 Advocacy 

This year the board has continued to provide feedback on the Alberta Government's AB2030: Building Skills for Jobs review. While ab-GPAC sees value in creating a strategic plan for the post secondary system we want to ensure that it creates a sustainable, affordable, and accessible system.  We continue to advocate for students as the government begins to implement some components of their strategic plan.  

In addition to this work ab-GPAC's board has been researching multiple topics of concern for students.  This research will help to develop advocacy polices and recommendations  that we can take to the government.  

In November 2021 we held our 3rd annual advocacy week where we were able to meet with MLA's to discuss ways to address the following  student priorities.

  1. Support for caregiving graduate students
  2. Student aid
  3. International student immigration


2020-2021 Advocacy 

This year the board has devoted a significant portion of time to contributing to the AB2030: Building Skills for Jobs review.  This review is being undertaken in order to set a ten year strategic plan for the Alberta post secondary System.  ab-GPAC has thus far participated in numerous consultations, town halls, and provided submissions to the government and consultant.  As this process continues to move forward we are preparing research in order to best respond to the recommendations that come from this review process.

In addition to this work ab-GPAC's board selected the following priorities to focus on for the year.

  1. Mental health funding
  2. Support for caregiving graduate students
  3. Digital Infrastructure
  4. Professional development

In November 2020 we held our 2nd annual advocacy week where we were able to meet with MLA's to discuss ways for these student priorities to be addressed.