PCCAT/CPCAT

Best Practices in Student Mobility:

Transforming Higher Education in Canada

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

5:30 - 7:00 pm  Registration,  BCIT 8th Floor Foyer, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC 

7:00 - 9:00 pm  Welcome Reception,  BCIT, The Atrium (Room 825). Hosted by the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT), www.bccat.ca  

 

Thursday, June 24, 2010

8:15 - 9:00 am  Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00 - 9:30 am  Welcome & Introductions; Conference Overview

9:30 - 10:30  am  Plenary Session   Keynote Address:  What if Canada Took Bologna Seriously?  Mr. Alex Usher, President, Higher Education Strategy Associates

Though Canadian governments have proclaimed a desire to see greater pan-Canadian credit mobility since the Victoria declaration in 1994, progress on such mobility has been much slower than in Europe, where the Bologna process has been a catalyst for greater innovation in mobility instruments.  Europe's relative success can be attributed entirely to its greater willingness to tackle the difficult issues which underpin the issue of mobility:  such as the definition of a credit, the definition and content of degrees.  Canada has shown an unwillingness to tackle these issues and as a result has seen its efforts at greater mobility stymied.  This keynote address sketches out what the relevant lessons of Bologna are for Canada and what a Canadian Bologna process could look like if these lessions were taken seriously.  

Each of the panellists will discuss a critical aspect of Best Practice in Student Mobility.  Dr. Peggy Patterson will argue that meaningful mobility can only occur in a context that ensures the integrity and quality of programs.  She will describe the goals and the process for Alberta's quality assurance legislation and related activities.  

Dr. John Walsh will focus on program design and mobility with respect to target markets, accessibility and flexibility, while highlighting the importance of credential credibility, pathways, quality assurance and most importantly, sustainable business planning.

Dr. Frank Gelin will emphasize the importance of shared values and system principles as a vital basis for developing articulation and transfer partnerships within post-secondary systems.

12:00 - 1:15 pm  Lunch

1:15 - 2:15 pm  Breakout Sessions with Panel Members

2:30 - 2:45 pm  Brief Summary from Breakout Sessions

Dinner  (Optional) - Please see sign-up sheets at registration table Restaurant Listing.

 

Friday, June 25, 2010

8:15 - 8:45 am  Continental Breakfast 

8:45 - 9:30 am  PCCAT Business Meeting

9:30 - 10:00 am Research Sub-Committee Report  (Research Study Report available here)

10:00 - 10:15 am Refreshment Break

11:00 - 11:45 am  Concurrent Session #2

• Seneca College's Liberal Arts Program:  A Partnership Model for Ontario (Henry Decock & Peter Meehan) - Room 825
• The Student Transitions Project:  Lessons Learned from BC Student Mobility Research (Devron Gaber & Joanne Heslop) - Room 860
• The Making of the Stakeholder Driven Model for a New Brunswick Council on Articulations and Transfer (Philip Belanger) - Room 880

11:45 am - 12:00 pm  Wrap Up, Evaluation & Adjournment

12:00 pm  Lunch (provided)

  

KEYNOTE AND PANELISTS BIOGRAPHIES:

Mr. Alex Usher, President, Higher Education Strategy Associates

Alex Usher is the President of Higher Education Strategy Associates. As overseer of HESA’s research agenda, Mr. Usher has led HESA to become a Canadian leader in post-secondary policy research. An internationally recognized expert in student financial aid and quality measurement in post-secondary education, Mr. Usher has authored and managed numerous ground-breaking studies in the field. Mr. Usher oversees HESA’s management of the Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Aid Project for the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, the first major research project in Canadian history to link student aid data, administrative data, and survey data to investigate the long-term effects of student aid. In 2002 and 2004, Mr. Usher co-authored (with Sean Junor) the Price of Knowledge, a volume considered the standard reference on student finance in Canada.  Mr. Usher is the only non-governmental member of the National Advisory Committee on Postsecondary Education Statistics. Mr. Usher was the Director of Educational Policy Institute Canada (EPI Canada) and the Vice-President of Educational Policy Institute International up until 2009. Prior to joining the Educational Policy Institute in 2003 and founding the Higher Education Strategy Associates Mr. Usher served as the Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Mr. Usher was the first national director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations and served as a researcher and lobbyist for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Throughout his career, Mr. Usher’s involvements have focused on the policy environment surrounding post-secondary education in Canada and abroad. Mr. Usher has authored or co-author over 40 articles and monographs.  He earned a B.A. in history from McGill University (Montreal, QC) and a M.A. in political science from Carleton University (Ottawa, ON).

  

Dr. Frank Gelin, Executive Director, BCCAT

Dr. Frank Gelin has worked in the BC Post-Secondary System since 1968. He has held several instructional and administrative positions including serving as Dean of Arts and Science at the College of New Caledonia in Prince George for four years and Vice-President of Academic Studies at Capilano College in North Vancouver for 15 years. He has been the Executive Director and Co-Chair of the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer since 1994 and has been a member of British Columbia’s Degree Quality Assessment Board since its inception in 2003. He has been extensively involved in transfer issues during his entire career including working on a committee in 1975 to draft BC’s Principles and Guidelines for Transfer and during the past decade working with several Provinces to facilitate their development of effective transfer initiatives.

 Dr. John Walsh, Vice-Provost, University of Guelph-Humber 

John Walsh is the Vice-provost at the University of Guelph-Humber, Toronto, Canada where he has led program expansion and redesign and the introduction of new degrees in Kinesiology and Psychology.

Prior to his current appointment in 2006 ,Professor Walsh served as the associate Dean of the Faculty of Management and Director of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Guelph, where he  was responsible for expansion of the Bachelor of Commerce enrolment and introduction of MBA and MA (Leadership) graduate programs.

During the 1990’s John served as a senior advisor to the Minister of Advanced Education and Training, government of British Columbia facilitating the creation of new apprenticeship opportunities in the Film and Motion picture, aerospace, and hospitality industries, working closely with employers, colleges, unions and industry sector councils. With the creation of  Royal Roads University John was asked to assume the roles of acting President and acting Vice-president academic and was the principal author of the first Education Plan for the University, establishing undergraduate programs in business and graduate programs in Leadership and Environmental Management.

Professor Walsh’s major teaching areas are in Business Policy and Strategy, and Operations Management. Internationally, he has been a Visiting Professor, Tourism and Entrepreneurship, at the Management Centre Innsbruck (MCI), Austria, Visiting Professor, Supply Chain Management, at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and an invited Lecturer in the Central Michigan University MA (Education), program and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), PhD program, University of Toronto.  

Dr. Peggy Patterson, Member, Campus Alberta Quality Council, and Professor/Associate Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

Dr. Peggy Patterson is a Professor of Higher Education Leadership at the University of Calgary, and the Associate Dean of the Graduate Division of Educational Research in the Faculty of Education. She has 28 years of senior administrative experience in student affairs portfolios in two Canadian universities, including 10 years as the Chief Academic Officer and Associate Vice-President (Student Affairs) at the University of Calgary.   She is the founder and Director of the Canadian Centre for the Study of Higher Education, is a  Director with both  the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education and the International Centre for Student Success and Institutional Accountability,  and is a former member of the Alberta Council on Admissions and Transfer (ACAT).

 

Ms. Finola Finlay, Associate Director, BCCAT

 

Finola Finlay is the Associate Director of the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer. Finola has been a Campus and Program Director at a Community College, the Director of a joint college/university teacher education program and has taught at every level from elementary school to university. She served as Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee to the BC Minister of Women’s Programs. She is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award from Simon Fraser University. Finola holds a BA and MA from the National University of Ireland, and has done further post-graduate work at Simon Fraser University. Her latest publications include Student Affairs: Experiencing Higher Education, co-edited with Lesley Andres, UBC Press, 2004; How to Articulate: Requesting and Assessing Credit in the BC Transfer System, BC Council on Admissions and Transfer, 2005; andArticulation and Transfer of Online Courses in Education for a Digital World, Commonwealth of Learning, 2008.

 

CONCURRENT SESSION DESCRIPTIONS:  (pdf version available here)

Concurrent Session #1 

a)  Towards a New Made-in-Ontario Credit Transfer System (Ms. Susan Golets & Dr. Maureen Callahan)

In spring 2009, Ontario began a collaborative process with colleges, universities and student organizations to design a new Made-in-Ontario credit transfer system to increase student mobility across and between its two postsecondary education sectors.  Accomplishments to date include cross-sectoral endorsement for a new vision, founding principles and a new transfer model framework.  This framework features novel approaches, building on transfer model approaches introduced at the 2009 PCCAT Conference as well as Ontario’s provincial program standards for college programs.  The framework considers partnerships, modes of curriculum analysis and mechanisms for transfer credit and suggests three models for student pathways from diploma programs to baccalaureate programs:  course-by-course transfer, block transfer and specially designed degree programs for college graduates.  The transfer model framework is currently being tested through pilot projects funded by the provincial government.  Presenters will describe the collaboration between the government and its key stakeholders to develop the new system, founding elements, including the transfer model framework, and provide information on the pilot projects currently underway.

b)  From Polytechnic to the University:  Implications for Student Mobility (Dr. Karen McDaniel)

Not all post-secondary transfers are created equal. For example, transfers from liberal arts college programs and polytechnic institutes to universities are different in many ways which can work against degree completion time.  Since baccalaureate degrees have some liberal arts components, students from highly technical diploma programs are immediately disadvantaged. Furthermore, their advanced technical courses often do not receive transfer credit at a comparable level because universities grant credit primarily for first and second year courses. What about the implications of university accredited programs on transfer credit? Are the polytechnics graduates disadvantaged? These issues and others ultimately have an impact on student mobility from the polytechnics as well as expectations around completion time. 

c)  Northern Exposure: A Yukon College/Thompson Rivers University Partnership (Dr. Katherine Sutherland)

This session describes the process of creating a bilateral partnership between Yukon College in Whitehorse and Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops.  There are several points of interest.  First, unlike a traditional partnership between a college and a university, this partnership encourages the exchange of university students to Yukon College and into programs not offered at TRU, while also encouraging general transfer for Yukon College students to TRU.  Second, the partnership also involves the Klondike Institute of Art and the University of the Arctic consortium (by virtue of existing relationships with Yukon College).  Finally, the model allows for a growth phase and avoids over-commitment by either institution during a period of economic restraint. 

Concurrent Session #2

a)  Seneca College’s Liberal Arts Program:  A Partnership Model for Ontario (Dr. Henry Decock & Dr. Peter Meehan)

In 1997 Seneca’s General Arts and Science program signed an articulation agreement with York University’ Faculty of Arts that was unique in its structure and continues to be unmatched by any other two year diploma program in the province. In 2009, the newly formulated Liberal Arts program signed a pilot agreement with the University of Toronto marking an evolution from a block credit arrangement to a course-for-course transfer partnership. The groundbreaking agreement has the potential to establish the framework for a provincial standard in the development of a two year transfer model as practiced in Alberta and British Columbia.  The presenters will describe the new model, its evolution, early student success and its potential for the Ontario post secondary system.

b)  The Student Transitions Project:  Lessons Learned from BC Student Mobility Research (Dr. Devron Gaber & Ms. Joanne Heslop)

The Student Transitions Project (STP), begun in 2005,  is a collaborative research project in British Columbia that measures student movement from the K-12 to post-secondary education systems using a unique Personal Education Number. All public post-secondary institutions, both education ministries, and the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer are involved in the partnership, which has now collected seven years of transitions data.  The presenters will show how the longitudinal nature of STP’s research allows it to report out on the movement and success of students over time.  The presenters will focus on the research methodology, key findings from the research, and lessons learned which might be applicable in other jurisdictions contemplating the development of a provincial student mobility research agenda.  

c)  The Making of the Stakeholder Driven Model for a New Brunswick Council on Articulations and Transfer (Mr. Philip Belanger)

The Government of New Brunswick has introduced numerous initiatives to assist with the transformation of post-secondary education, including a number of actions taken to create a more efficient province-wide cooperation in the areas of learner mobility.  The department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour (PETL) established a temporary committee on admissions and transfer referred to as New Brunswick Council on Articulations and Transfer (NBCAT), to carry out key priority activities for the fiscal year 2009-2010, including a recommended long-term NBCAT operational plan to be implemented in 2010-11.  The proposed long-term operational plan for a NBCAT has been developed.  The NBCAT model is tailored to meet the distinctive needs of the province based on a stakeholder driven collaborative approach.  The purpose of this session is to share with the attendees the significant progress that has occurred in New Brunswick since the last PCCAT meeting with the making of the proposed stakeholder driven model for a long-term NBCAT.