Red Deer College
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Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP), formerly Red Deer College, is a public polytechnic institute of approximately 10,000 students in credit, non-credit and apprenticeship programming located in
Red Deer, Alberta Red Deer is a city in Alberta, Canada, located midway on the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. Red Deer serves central Alberta, and its key industries include health care, retail trade, construction, oil and gas, hospitality, manufacturing and educati ...
, Canada. In 2021, Red Deer College was converted into a provincially focused polytechnic institute called Red Deer Polytechnic, with the added ability to grant
bachelor's degrees A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Neo-Latin, Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and university, universities upon completion of a course of study lasting ...
.


History

Established in 1964 as Red Deer College, (RDC), the institution was built for a smaller semi-rural community but, in the years since its founding, the city has grown into the third largest in the province. Red Deer College's arms, supporters and flag (all designed by Darren George) were registered with the
Canadian Heraldic Authority The Canadian Heraldic Authority (CHA; ) is part of the Canadian honours system under the Monarchy of Canada, Canadian monarch, whose authority is exercised by the Governor General of Canada. The authority is responsible for the creation and gran ...
on February 20, 2004. The college is a member of the Alberta Rural Development Network. In 2018, Red Deer College applied to begin transitioning to a
university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
. The goal was to become a central hub of research and education for Central Alberta, offering education in the trades, the sciences, and the arts and fine arts. On March 5, 2019, the college announced a three-year transition process, and that it would adopt the name Red Deer University. However on May 5, 2021, the Government of Alberta announced that Red Deer College would become a polytechnic institution instead of a university. The transition and name change was complete by June 2021.


Programs

Red Deer Polytechnic offers certificates, diplomas, advanced certificates, applied degrees, bachelor's degrees, academic upgrading and apprenticeship in over 75 different career and academic programs, including the creative and liberal arts, engineering, and trades.


Scholarships and bursaries

The Government of Canada sponsors an Aboriginal Bursaries Search Tool that lists over 680 scholarships, bursaries, and other incentives offered by governments, universities, and industry to support Aboriginal post-secondary participation. RDP's scholarships for Aboriginal,
First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
and
Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...
students include: Atoskewan Aboriginal Career Centre Scholarship The polytechnic awards approximately $390,000(CAD) annually in scholarships and bursaries.


Undergraduate student conference

The Agora Student Conference is held annually at RDP in support of undergraduates in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Having started in 2004, the conference has continued to grow and gain recognition from neighbouring institutions such as the
University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...
. Those who present their original papers, presentations, or creative works at the conference also have the opportunity to have their work published in the Agora Journal, distributed by RDP.


Campuses

Red Deer Polytechnic's Main Campus is situated in the city of Red Deer, midway between the larger cities of
Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
and
Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
. The campus is located near the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, an hour and a half drive from either of the above cities. The main campus features a
library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
, a bar, a
restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...
, a
Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., known colloquially as Tim's, Timmies, or Timmy's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, Doughnut, donuts, sandwiches, Breakfast sandwich, breakfast egg mu ...
, a
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...
, and other food-related businesses.


Donald School of Business/Downtown Campus

The Donald School of Business (DSB) was situated in downtown Red Deer in the Millennium Centre building. It occupied floors 3, 4, and 5. In 2021, the Donald School of Business returned to the main Red Deer Polytechnic Campus.


Welikoklad Event Centre

Red Deer College has a third campus/building directly across from the DSB. It features a stage, a movie theatre, and an art gallery space. It is used for some shows, and for when RDP hosts the Backpacks to Briefcases for students.


Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre

Completed in 2018 for the 2019 Canada Winter Games, the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre (popularly known as the GWH) features an ice arena (capable of Olympic sized ice), a performance gymnasium, a fitness centre, running/sprinting tracks, squash courts, and a massive court surface capable of holding four volleyball or two basketball games simultaneously.


Athletics

Team and mixed sports Red Deer Polytechnic participate in include:
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
,
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
,
volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
,
hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
,
badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
,
cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...
,
curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...
,
rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqu ...
,
dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
, and (formerly)
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
. They are particularly known for volleyball.


Notable alumni

*
k.d. lang Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang (stylised in all lowercase), is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical pe ...
* Kari Matchett * Tim Tamashiro


References

{{Coord, 52, 15, 17.76, N, 113, 49, 37.08, W, display=title, type:edu Educational institutions established in 1964 Colleges in Alberta Vocational education in Canada Buildings and structures in Red Deer, Alberta 1964 establishments in Alberta