A new pathway is opening up more opportunities for post-secondary students.
Northern College and Universite de Hearst have announced a new pathway agreement.
Business, social work and police foundation students at Northern College can upgrade their diploma to a degree through a two plus two format.
Universite de Hearst vice president Marc Bedard noted this marks the first time an English college and French institution have made this kind of partnership.
“You do not know right away all the time what you want to do in life, so when you decide to change the way that you see yourself in the future we have to make sure that it’s easy for them to change,” he said.
For Northern College president Fred Gibbons, the partnership cements the ability for students to stay and pursue an undergraduate degree.
“Students who graduate from college, many of them choose to enter the workforce, into well-paying jobs and some of them have more senior aspirations to want to go on to earn university degrees,” he said.
“The philosophy that we’ve had at this institution for a long time is that if we don’t provide options for students to stay, then we’ve given them reasons to leave.”
Historically, he said when students leave they generally don’t come back in the same numbers that leave.
“We want to keep them here because our workforce needs them, there are a lot of jobs, well-paying jobs, for both college and university graduates,” he said.
The pathway agreement takes effect this fall and is funded by the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT).
By supporting students in northern and remote communities and francophone students looking to study in their language of choice, ONCAT executive director Yvette Munro said the partnership meets the needs of two groups important to the organization.
Northern College also has a partnership with Algoma University.
Earlier this year, a new pathway was announced for Northern College's business program and Algoma's bachelor of business administration degree, as well as Northern's computer engineering technician diploma and Algoma's bachelor of computer science.
For students in the eligible programs, after earning their diploma they could transition to the university program and earn a degree.
- With files from RogersMedia
