On November 12, 2024, Dr. Rehan Sadiq, a shortlisted candidate for Memorial University’s Provost position, delivered his public presentation. During his talk, he referenced Memorial University President Neil Bose multiple times, and Bose also posed a question to him.
Bose has recently faced criticism for chairing the Provost search committee while having a prior supervisory relationship with Sadiq during his graduate studies. It’s been alleged that Bose violated the university’s conflict of interest policy.
Sadiq first mentioned Bose when he praised Memorial’s physical and cultural assets. He remarked, “When you are in it, you don’t realize what you have. When you see from the outside, then you realize what you got.” He added that he discussed this observation with Bose.
Later, Sadiq referred Bose again while discussing Memorial’s budget challenges, mentioning that they had spoken about cost pressures.
During the question-and-answer session, Bose asked, “…you explained how we’re facing cuts or… dropping tuition because of international students, and you’re also facing them. What sort of new ideas for the future do you see as being ways in which we can change the amount of funding coming to universities in the future?”
Sadiq responded, “Thank you, Dr. Bose. I think the most important thing is that, as I said, we have to create multi entry points for university. What do I mean by that is we are not just taking, focusing on students who are coming in our 1st year undergrad programs. There is much more to that and especially in the current system. We can create, there are lots of models around transformational education. People are coming with two plus two models, three plus one plus one models. That’s one approach which we need in doing it. We need to create flexible learning models. We need to think about what type of program, especially at the professional level, we need to create. People are changing their professions much quicker in this generation as my generation was. I become an engineer and stay engineer. It’s not the case anymore. Are we creating university or partner in that or not? Other area which I like to mention is that there are possibilities that one model which we have done in Okanagan, we have created a dual degree program, which is basically bringing students who are want to do their, their interested music, but we also giving them an option, also an option to register for master in management program. We call dual MM program, and it’s a very popular program. Really, really popular program. Students what they do what they love, but they also find some career paths.”
Matt Barter is a graduate of the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, holding a degree in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, taking walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.
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