Globe & Mail discusses polytechnics and sought after community college programs
The Globe and Mail has a few articles today about post-secondary education options.
The first article Sought After Programs lists several of the “nationally renowned courses to be found at many of the country’s top colleges.”
In A new niche: Polytechnics at a glance, Dr. Rick Miner, president of Toronto’s Seneca College, describes the characteristics of a polytechnic institue:
- It is more concerned with application than theory; there will be theory, but the raison d’être will be application.
- It offers a variety of credentials: apprenticeships, certificate programs, diploma programs of one and two years, undergraduate degrees and possibly graduate degrees — a whole menu of choice.
- Those choices are interrelated, with a laddering of programs. For example, a student could begin with a two-year diploma program, get a job, and then return to study for a degree.
- It is student-centred in the way it designs courses and promotes faculty.
- There is applied research. There may be a role for pure research, but value is attached to applied research.
- There is community focus and involvement; the mission of the school encompasses community needs and desires.
- The governance system is designed to be responsive to the needs of the community.
More detailed coverage of polytechnics is found in One-stop shopping for postsecondary students.
Since most of these polytechnics are community colleges that have chosen to expand their offerings and/or form an alliance with a university, admission policies are likely to more closely mirror that of a community college than a university, at least for now. Some of these programs, like Guelph-Humber’s programs, are not new. But, application to these programs has traditionally been through OCAS (the Ontario COLLEGE application service) and not OUAC (the Ontario UNIVERSITY application service). Since community colleges have not been as quick to develop homeschool policies as the universities, there may be extra hurdles to overcome for homeschooled applicants.
As always, if you’re interested in one of these programs, contact the schools well in advance to give yourself the best shot of meeting their admission requirements!
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