Accessible education means that your ability to earn an education should not be decided by your socioeconomic standing. While ensuring students from all backgrounds feel welcome on campus, UMSU is fighting back against financial barriers to post-secondary education in Manitoba.
What Are Open Educational Resources?
Educational Resources (OERs) are openly licensed course materials that can be freely accessed. Putting more OERs into classrooms is a major way students can save money. A database of OERs can be found at https://openedmb.ca AND https://oercommons.org
UMSU will be working with the administration and faculty to make more affordable course materials a priority this year, as tuition rises. In addition to OERs, we will be asking faculty to increase the use of course packs, which are curated reading collections compiled into one course-specific book that is highly affordable compared to a textbook.
Do You Know That
Course Packs already make up 24% of the bookstore’s course material orders at the University of Manitoba? Most of these course packs are printed at UMSU’s Digital Print & Design Centre, which inputs its revenue back into student services.
Learn More and Get Involved
UMSU has formed an Accessible Education working group, in which students can come together to address ways to make education more affordable and accessible. Major focuses will include lobbying against another tuition increase, increasing access to financial aid, increasing course material affordability, and any other measures students would like to see addressed.
Contact email@example.com to learn more and join the working group, provide feedback or suggest any of your ideas to make education more accessible!