University leader who defied Alberta government is fired

Peter Scott, the Athabasca University president who openly defied the province’s directive to drop the institution’s move to virtual operations, was fired by the school’s board of governors on Wednesday 1 February 2023, writes Michelle Bellefontaine for CBC News.

The board appointed Alex Clark, the university’s dean of the faculty of health disciplines, to succeed him. Byron Nelson, chair of the board of governors, cited privacy concerns in declining to say why Scott was let go. “Everything that happens in the board is confidential, but the university itself, the board of governors of the university is just looking forward to moving forward with an evolving vision,” Nelson said in an interview with CBC News.

Scott became president on 4 January 2022. Soon after arriving in Alberta from his previous job in Australia, he found himself in the middle of a dispute over the university’s direction. A local grassroots organisation lobbied the Alberta government, concerned about the impact a near-virtual plan would have on the town’s economy.
Full report on the CBC News site