THE FUTURE OF CANADA’S UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES
(Speaking Notes)
T. A. Weninger President College of New Caledonia
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Good afternoon, and thank you for arranging this series of national public hearings and for choosing Prince George as a site for one of the hearings. As time is limited I want to get to the substance of my remarks quickly I do not want to “sensationalize” or weaken public confidence in post-secondary education but there is no utility in addressing the topic “The Future of Canada’s Universities and Coll eges ” and not lo okin g at th e pict ure re alistic ally. Let me begin by illustrating the role of the community college through the use of examp les. Presen tly, as a citizen of Prince G eorge an d as a Co llege Pres ident I participate d in a politica l lobby to imp rove “he alth care” in the north a nd in our c ity. Who w as able to respond ? The post sec ondary system. I will only mention C NC’s contribu tions in resp onse to the crises.
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The College was able to accommodate additional seats in the CNC-UNBC Collaborative Degree Nursing Program with minimal preparation time.
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CNC partnered w ith Malaspina University College and implemented a N urse refresher progra m with 20 sea ts, and we gradu ated 18, I believe no w all are employed in Northern BC; we are now planning for the second in-take;
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CNC partnered with Vancouver Community College and implemented the practical nurse program with 32 seats fully subscribed;
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Let’s go to Vanderhoof, the CNC Nechako Campus where a few years ago the employers in the forest sector wanted forest diploma graduates, and had employees that wanted to upgrade - the College brokered a deal with the emp loyers, employees, union s and Forest R enewal B C to offer the 2-year d iploma over 4 years - thus employees co uld maintain their jobs a nd achieve their d iploma - a succes s! a model for others to follow.
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Page 3 of 5 OR: In Burns Lake where a few yeas ago the community identified Fetal Alcohol Syndrome as the number one social problem that was hindering community and economic development. I could go through the various phases of the development of the FAS programs on that campu s - I will not - but the program s are comprehensive and are now being heralded as “best practice” across the nation. That is the good new s! However, the College system’s ability to respond to our communities; to provide access to quality programs, “to provide access to life long learning” as stated in our Mission Statement is perilously close to collapsing! I have be en involv ed in edu cation fo r more tha n several yea rs; the last 15 o r so in the post-secondary sector, and during that time I have heard of the various “challenges” facing the system. Sometimes we are too timid when it comes to outlining the challenges for fear of appearing to be self-serving. There are three challenges facing the College System - funding, funding and funding. In no orde r of p riority: Funding Funding Funding - operating and equipment funds - capital buildings and technology infrastructu re - to make student access reality - through favourable tuition fee policies, scholarships, bursaries; forgivable loans whatever, but access must be a “reality”. I hope in the discussion of the topic “The Future of Canada’s Universities and College s” there is ro om to dif ferentiate w ithin the po st-second ary system. Un til recently post-seco ndary edu cation m eant “uni versi ty”, now it is commonly understood to include the college system.
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Howe ver, within the post-sec ondary system now more broadly def ined - there are subsets with unique mandates. The Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC ) has a task force iden tifying and working to articulate the role and adv ocate for a very important subset the “Rural and Remote College”. Several yea rs ago I had the distinct p leasure an d challen ge to resea rch and w rite the “BC Small Colleges Report (1997)”. It was a relatively easy task to document the funding disadvantages facing the BC rural colleges and as it turns out the same disadvantages play out across Canada: - small populations; resource based communities (usually in economic trouble), and out of the listening range of the decision makers! At the time the report was written I argued to adjust the formula to compensate for the identified factors with the intent to adjust the formula to take into account the lack of econom y of scale. I failed to articulate th e differen t role played b y these cam puses in these rural and remote communities. The rural and remote college campus is integrally involved in community, social and economic development. The ACCC task force has identified that common theme among the 800 campuses that are spread out over what has been defined rural Canada cove ring 9 0% of Canad a’s ge ogra phy. The current funding formulas and policies of provincial and federal levels of govern ment rein force the separation betwee n college and com munity by exc lusively focusing on the classroom instruction or training role of the college and discouraging use of the college for the economic and social development of communities. Possibly the community college system has contributed to that trend - by not continuing to reinforce the “com munity” asp ect of the c ommu nity college. A nd yet the rura l and rem ote campu ses are exp ected to be involved , and are be ing involv ed, at the co mmun ity level. With no /little recognitio n from th e provinc ial and fed eral levels o f govern ment.
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So, the future of Canada’s Universities and Colleges” takes on additional perspectives as we see the dimension of “community” being reinforced in those 800 campuses across Canada . In discussing the future of Canada’s universities and colleges, the complete role of the rural and remote college campus must be supported. If not the rural and remote communities of Canada will be further jeopardized. Thank you for this op portunity, and I look forw ard to the o utcome s, results of th is public hearing process.
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